Nuclear Reactor Developer Commissions High-Fidelity Training Simulator

Hadron Energy has selected GSE Solutions as its supplier for the design, development, delivery, installation and commissioning of a full-scope, high-fidelity training simulator for the Halo Micro-Modular Reactor (MMR).

The simulator will replicate the full range of the Halo MMR's expected operating behaviour, encompassing normal power operations, anticipated operational occurrences, design-basis events and beyond-design-basis scenarios. It will serve as the principal training platform for reactor operators, senior reactor operators, shift technical advisors and engineering staff.

NRC regulations require every candidate Reactor Operator and Senior Reactor Operator to complete structured training and pass written, operational and simulator-based examinations on a simulator that accurately models the facility they will operate (10 CFR Part 55). The simulator is therefore a regulatory prerequisite for commercial operation.

"You cannot commission a nuclear plant without certified operators, and you cannot certify operators without a high-fidelity simulator that represents the plant they are going to operate,"  said Ross Ridenoure, Chief Nuclear Officer, Hadron Energy. "GSE has been building that environment for the industry for more than fifty years. Bringing them in at this design stage for the Halo MMR lets us replicate the plant virtually as we are designing it. This sharpens the design and surfaces any operability or human-factors issues while the engineering is still flexible enough to address them."