A technology center in Virginia plans to install a simulator that will allow researchers to study Generation III+ power reactor systems and how operators interact with them.
Areva announced this week that it will provide the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research with a high-fidelity simulator of its EPR nuclear plant. It will allow operator training and research in the areas of human-machine interface, human factors, instrumentation and control, and cyber security.
“The United States has not had a configurable control room simulator for research use like the one at the Halden Man-Machine Lab in Norway,” CAER Executive Director Bob Bailey said in a release. “The simulator provided by AREVA under this agreement will now enable us to perform critical experiments in the U.S. in areas such as alarm systems, control room design, display navigation and development of human performance measures.”
Part of a configurable mock control room at the center, the simulator will include four operator stations that can be used separately or in combination, depending on the research. Each station can accommodate up to 10 monitors.
The CAER is a non-profit, 30,000-square-foot research center near Lynchburg, Va., that opened in August of 2011. Among its projects, it also hosts a mockup of the mPower small modular reactor under development by Babcock and Wilcox.