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Fukushima Impact on Training Simulators |
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November 2012 |
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Thunder España participated in the 38th Annual Meeting of the Spanish Nuclear Society (SNE) with the paper “Fukushima Impact on Training Simulators” (downloadable here, in Spanish). The article summarizes the expected upgrades in current training simulators as a consequence of the lessons learned from the Fukushima-Daiichi disaster in March 2011. Many of the changes will be needed just to reflect the modifications to be implemented at the plants following new regulations intended to increase safety margins in accidents beyond design basis.
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Fukushima Special Session at the SNE Annual Meeting (Photo: SNE)
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Others will provide additional capabilities to train operators and personnel involved in Emergency Management in severe and extended damage accident scenarios. The article presents some real examples from recent innovative projects.
The meeting, held on October 17-19 in the city of Cáceres (Spain), gathered 700 nuclear professionals from all fields in the industry. Thunder España paper was included in the Training track and was voted by the audience as the best presentation in its session.
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PAUL Project presented at SimTech 2012 |
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October 2012 |
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PAUL, Thunder España R&D project on electric distribution grid simulation, was presented at SimTech 2012, one of the largest gatherings of power plant simulator professionals in the US.
The conference, hosted in New Orleans by Corys, also included a T-REX User Meeting where Thunder engineers received customer feedback on the widely used simulation platform and related tools. |
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PAUL presentation by Mario Garcés and Beatriz Vidal
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PAUL is a joint project with E.ON España Distribución and CIC Consulting Informático intended to build a management and simulation tool to support E.ON distribution operations in the north of Spain, where the impact of renewable energy sources is increasingly important. The two-year project started in mid-2011 and it is still in the development stage. PAUL is financed partly by the Cantabrian regional government with European Union funds.
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Charity sports challenge completed |
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October 2012 |
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Santander runners before heading to the starting line
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On September 30th, a twelve-strong team of runners from Santander completed the 39th Berlin Marathon. At the same time, they reached their goal of raising 2,500€ for AMPROS, a regional nonprofit organization devoted to improve the quality of life of people with mental disabilities. The money will be used to purchase new sports equipment. The runners belong to CorriendoenSantander Sports Club, proudly sponsored by Thunder España.
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THOR Senior Project at the University of Cantabria |
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September 2012 |
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Ana Alonso, student at the University of Cantabria, has obtained her B.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering with the senior project “Combined Cycle Power Plant of Sabiya. Project for Training Simulator Improvement.” The project is based on the liquid fuel models of THOR, Corys Thunder advanced thermal hydraulics simulation code.
Ana worked as an intern for Thunder España during the past year and has now joined the company as a full time junior engineer. |
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New focus on Severe Accident |
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August 2012 |
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Participants on the SARNET course.
Among them,
Jean-Pierre Van Dorsselaere, SARNET Coordinator
(enlarge)
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Since the Fukushima disaster, international agencies and regulatory bodies are expanding their severe accident programs. A better understanding of the complex phenomenology associated to these events is required so they can be prevented or, at least, the consequences to the public and environment diminished. The final official report on the accident, ordered by the Japanese legislature, highlights the lack of specific training in this subject.
The nuclear simulation industry is poised to offer its services in this area and some innovative projects are already under way.
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Thunder España is experienced in severe accident simulation tools and is ready to contribute to this task.
With this goal, Mario Garcés recently attended the Course on Severe Accidents Phenomenology and Management, sponsored by the European Commission Severe Accident Research Network of Excellence SARNET, at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. |
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Different applications for glass panel simulators |
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July 2012 |
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The role of glass panel simulators in operator training is increasing.
Thunder España is taking part in the development of graphics for the two modules acquired by FirstEnergy Corporation to train Perry Nuclear Plant (Ohio, USA) personnel in the operation of the Remote Shutdown Panel and Emergency Diesel Generators.
Control panels for both systems are located out of the main control room and, usually, are not included in full-scope training simulators. Once the project is completed, Perry operators will be able to train on these systems on specific sessions independent of the main simulator or in an integrated manner with the rest of panels. |
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Emergency Diesel Generator, Division 2, control panel at Perry nuclear plant (enlarge)
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3D Monicore emulation ready for training |
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May 2012 |
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Columbia training simulator
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Mario Garcés traveled to Columbia Generating Station (Washington, U.S.) to integrate in the training simulator the emulated version of the General Electric's 3D Monicore system fully developed by Thunder España.
Also, the acceptance test was performed on site and the emulation achieved the ready-for-training status, thus will be included in the practical sessions from now on.
Mario also provided the Energy Northwest personnel in charge of the simulator with specific training in the capabilities and maintenance of the new software. |
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This is the sixth core monitoring emulation currently installed in a U.S. simulator that has been developed by engineers now working for Thunder España. |
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First phase of Mochovce simulator rehost accomplished |
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April 2012 |
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The successfully finished first stage of the Mochovce 1 & 2 training simulator full rehost consisted in the replacement of the entire I/O system with CORYS CAN I/O modules.
CORYS CAN I/O is an innovative product based on the CAN (for Controller Area Network) I/O standard widely used worldwide. New modules are decentralized and they connect via Ethernet, moving away from old-fashioned chassis-mounted I/O systems. |
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A typical CORYS CAN I/O installation
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Main advantages include higher reliability, simpler installation & configuration and easier expansion.
Thunder España engineer Antonio Sierra joined the Corys team temporarily displaced to Slovakia to carry out the replacement during the last weeks of April. |
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New glass panel simulator projects |
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February 2012
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Even before the completion of the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) of the first glass panel simulator contracted by Entergy Nuclear for Waterford 3, the electrical operator has asked for the simulation of another of its facilities: Arkansas Nuclear One.
The two-unit plant, located in Russellville (Arkansas, USA), has the peculiarity of having different PWR designs (Unit 1 is Babcock & Wilcox, while Unit 2 is Combustion Engineering), so are the two control rooms.
Likewise, the scope of the glass panel simulator includes the panels of both units as well as the capability of switching between the Unit 1 and Unit 2 loads. Moreover, these loads will be exactly the same than the ones already running in the training simulators, as both were re-hosted to T-REX environment in 2011.
Due to the increasing role of Thunder España in this new field of activity, the company sent one of its engineers to Corys Thunder headquarters to share the experience using the latest ThunderEdit development tools and get specific training on project implementation.
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Antonio Sierra, from Thunder España, testing Monticello glass panel (enlarge)
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Monticello training simulator
(Photo: Ben Franske, Wikimedia Commons)
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GE 3D Monicore emulation contract |
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January 2012 |
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Thunder España Simulación has been awarded a contract to supply and integrate in the training simulator of Columbia Generating Station (Washington, U.S.) an emulated version of the 3D Monicore system by General Electric.
Apart from the user interface, the project includes the development of a limited-scope 3D Monicore model, which is going to provide valid approximations of thermal limits and other core parameters thanks to the quality of the THOR-based primary system model currently running in the simulator.
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Typical 3D Monicore display (enlarge)
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Thunder España Simulación engineers have previous experience in the emulation of
the two most common core monitoring systems, Framatome PowerPlex and GE 3D Monicore, for other BWR plants in the U.S. |
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ICCMS emulation delivered to Kewaunee |
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January 2012 |
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Kewaunee Power Station (Wisconsin, U.S.) has just integrated in its simulator a fully-emulated version of the Inadequate Core Cooling Monitor System (ICCMS) in replacement of the previous stimulated solution.
The project is framed under the so-called "Node Box Obsolescence Mitigation Plan" by Invensys, which is intended to reallocate the real system host computers from the full-scope training simulator to the plant control room for spare purpose, as the original equipment is no longer manufacturated by Westinghouse. |
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Main screen of emulated ICCMS (enlarge)
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Thunder España Simulación carried out the R&D required to enhance graphic editor ThunderEdit to support all the ICCMS interactive features on touch screen monitors. In this case, ThunderEdit was integrated in the plant's simulator platform OpenSim. |
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