The following aspects need attention during the design phase:

• The integral water-cooled reactor complicates the in-vessel control detector arrangement. There is a need for new technical solutions regarding instrumentation design. There is no difference with other reactors in principle but there may be engineering problems.

• In-core instrumentation is needed on prototype reactors but should not be required on production reactors. This is because of the low power density and small size which gives stability to the power distribution

• There is a licensing requirement for in-core instrumentation in some countries

• Failed fuel detection can be left to detectors in the chemical and volume control system (CVCS) as in large light water reactors (LWRs)