An Important Training Step for Research

If nuclear power plants are going to have a significant role in the future production of electricity in this country, the folks who operate them will need the best and most sophisticated training centers they can get.

One of those centers is taking shape in a planned research facility that will be run by the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research at a site in Bedford County.

The centerpiece of the research facility will be a control room simulator, according to Bob Bailey, CAER’s executive director. He said the simulator was included in the building’s conceptual design because local companies, including Areva on Old Forest Road, one of the world’s leaders in the production of nuclear energy, said it was needed.

There was another reason for the control room simulator. The research center needed something to set it apart from other labs. As Bailey put it last week, “There’s nothing like this in the country. There is not a fully configurable control room simulator for the new generation of plants.”

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The new simulator will feature 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 nuclear power plant, Bailey said. As a practical matter, it would allow companies to test their control room designs and solve problems.

A similar simulator program has existed on a small scale at the University of Virginia for several years. UVa officials wanted to expand the program, but were so impressed with the plans here they have decided to participate in development of CAER’s facility.

That’s a clear indication that the people at CAER are on the right track and that they are providing a vital and necessary service to the nuclear power industry.

Other parts of the research center will include flexible lab space that companies could rent while working on a development that requires additional space. An important factor of the center, Bailey said, 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,” he said.

While details of the architectural design are being completed, Bailey said the project could go out for bids next month and that CAER could break ground on it at the New London Business and Technology Center in October. He hopes it will be ready for use in November 2010.

As the worldwide production of energy continues to be a major political, economic and environmental issue, the level of training for those involved becomes more and more important. That training is the hope of the future research center in Bedford. The skills learned there could pave the way for greater acceptance of nuclear power throughout the United States.