Bedford County’s CAER unveils research campus plans

Next year, Bedford County could be home to a unique simulator that would be important for designing control rooms in future nuclear power plants.

On Wednesday, the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research unveiled details about the research campus it plans to build in a county business park on U.S. 460. Local industry and government officials attended the informal open house at Central Virginia Community College.

The research center will have numerous labs to study various kinds of technology, but a control room simulator will be its centerpiece, said Bob Bailey, CAER’s executive director.

He said the simulator was included in the building’s conceptual design because local companies said it was needed but also because the facility needs something to set it apart from other labs.

“There’s nothing like this in the country,” Bailey said. “… There is not a fully configurable control room simulator for the new generation of plants.”

He said existing control room simulators are designed for second-generation reactors, the kind that were built more than 30 years ago.

The new simulator will be heavy on both hardware and software to allow researchers to test a control room’s layout and simulate the way it would interact with other systems at a plant, Bailey said. It would allow companies to test their control room designs and solve problems.

New control rooms are going to use more wireless controls, which will introduce additional security and reliability problems that the simulator could help solve, he said.

The University of Virginia has had a similar simulator program on a small scale for several years. Bailey said UVa wanted to grow its simulator program but decided instead to participate in the development of the simulator at CAER’s facility.

Other parts of the research facility will include flexible lab space that companies could rent while working on a development for which they need additional space. Other labs will be designed for companies that are developing wireless technologies, including wireless technologies that aid energy efficiency, Bailey said.

An important factor of the facility is the networking and collaboration it will foster.

“The real idea behind the building is to create the same type of atmosphere you have at a research university campus,” Bailey said.

Earlier this year, Bailey worked with local industries and universities to decide what types of labs the building should include. Local architecture and engineering firm Wiley|Wilson has finished a conceptual design, which was revealed Wednesday, and is finishing the detailed design.

Bailey said the project can go out for bids probably in September and CAER could break ground on it at the New London Business and Technology Center in October. He said he hopes to have the facility operational in November 2010.