Nuclear power plant simulator

Open Access

Abstract

Florida Technological University College of Engineering Thesis; The United States' energy crisis, which has received so much publicity lately , has focused national attention on how we are to meet our energy demands. Proposed energy sources include conventional nuclear power plants, breeder reactor and fusion reactor plants, coal gasification, liquid hydrogen, solar energy, and geothermal energy. All of these except conventional fission plants are still on the drawing board or in the experimental laboratory, and are described briefly. Government and industry are betting heavily on conventional nuclear power plants. ($40 billion already spent by private utilities for 30 operating plants, 60 under construction, and 75 on order.) A. few unpublicized accidents and more and more complex instrumentation in nuclear power plant control rooms has pointed to a desperate need for more effective ways of training individuals to safely operate these plants. Recognizing this need, General Electric Company designed and built a very realistic computer-driven simulator of a plant control room. The physical enclosures and instrumentation duplicates the Dresden II control room in every way, and response to operator manipulation of controls duplicates that of a real plant. The bulk of this paper describes the simulator and its development. The last section raises questions concerning hazards of continued growth of nuclear power and presents some alternatives. ; 1973-05-01 ; M.S. ; Engineering ; Masters ; This record was generated from author submitted information. ; Electronically reproduced by the University of Central Florida from a book held in the John C. Hitt Library at the University of Central Florida, Orlando.