The Savitzky Golay Filter

 I recently started getting into a numerical method in an attempt to smooth out data from linear response detectors in an instrumentation experiment.

I think the Savitzky-Golay is a great analytical method for this sort of digital data form. Wiki link. From wiki " the purpose of smoothing the data, that is, to increase the signal-to-noise ratio without greatly distorting the signal. This is achieved, in a process known as convolution, by fitting successive sub-sets of adjacent data points with a low-degree polynomial by the method of linear least squares. " Which is good for the reactor data because we know how the curve should react along constant reactor power.

 Another method for smoothing is simply a moving average. (S.G. uses a method of triangular moving average to some degree by the way) There are various forms of moving average, but the idea is to take a window of points in your dataset, compute an average of the points, then shift the window over by one point and repeat.