Abstract: Real-time monitor for 3D power distribution is critical to nuclear safety and high efficiency of NPP’s operation as well as the control system optimization. A method was proposed to set up a real-time monitor system for 3D power distribution by using of ex-core neutron detecting system and RBF neural network for improving the instantaneity of the monitoring results and reducing the fitting error of the 3D power distribution. A series of experiments were operated on a 300 MW PWR simulation system. The results demonstrate that the new monitor system works very well under condition of certain burnup range during the fuel cycle and reconstructs the real-time 3D distribution of reactor core power. The accuracy of the model is improved effectively with the help of several methods.