Electrometric Measurement and Dynamic Compensation of a Vanadium Self-Powered Neutron Detector

Self-Powered Neutron Detectors (SPNDs) are neutron detection devices widely used at nuclear reactors. They have two main applications: security and flux monitoring inside the reactor's core. Vanadium detectors have a slow response time, which makes their case of use limited to the latter. In this paper, the goal was to design an electronic device capable of measuring the low output current of a vanadium SPND with a particularly low sensitivity, while dynamically compensating it's response time, so as to obtain quick flux measurements despite the detector's natural slow response time. Two tests took place at Argentine Research Reactor RA-3: the first one to characterize the detector, as to obtain the design parameters of the device; and the second one, to test the device and validate the full design. At every instance, the results were compared to those measured with a calibrated electrometer connected to a rhodium SPND.