L3 MAPPS to provide more simulators to EDF Energy

L3 MAPPS has been contracted by EDF Energy Nuclear Generation to supply two classroom simulators to its Nuclear Power Academy in the UK. The project is under way and the two simulators will be put into service in the first quarter of 2018, the Montreal, Canada-headquartered company said yesterday.

L3 MAPPS has been contracted by EDF Energy Nuclear Generation to supply two classroom simulators to its Nuclear Power Academy in the UK. The project is under way and the two simulators will be put into service in the first quarter of 2018, the Montreal, Canada-headquartered company said yesterday.

Three Orchid Touch Interface bays (Image: L3 MAPPS)

The two classroom simulators, based on the Sizewell B plant models developed by L3 MAPPS, will be on Windows-based platforms running L3's Orchid simulation environment.

EDF Energy opened its upgraded Sizewell B plant training simulator in January last year. L3 MAPPS was awarded a contract to carry out the upgrade work in September 2014. The Sizewell plant is in Suffolk, England.

Michael Chatlani, vice president of marketing and sales for L3 MAPPS Power Systems and Simulation, said in yesterday's statement the company's simulation technology is already employed at six EDF Energy facilities.

Phil Robinson, EDF Energy's head of training, said the new simulators at its Nuclear Power Academy, in Barnwood, Gloucester, would "augment our robust training" and "support operational safety and excellence".

The operator trainees will interact with the plant simulation via Orchid Touch Interface bays - one simulator with nine bays and the other with six bays, according to the company statement. Each bay uses three large touchscreen monitors with 1080p full HD resolution to display near life-size operable virtual control room panels.

Both simulators will also be equipped with large wall-mounted screens displaying 2-D and 3-D interactive nuclear steam supply system visualisations that communicate with the plant simulation. The instructors will be able to control and monitor the simulation with Orchid Instructor Station from desktop stations and wireless tablet PCs.

EDF Energy, a subsidiary of French state-run EDF, produces about one-fifth of the UK's electricity. It operates all of country's 15 reactors - seven twin-unit advanced gas-cooled reactors and one pressurised water reactor (Sizewell B). It plans to build two new nuclear power plants at Hinkley Point, in Somerset, England and Sizewell.

L3 MAPPS provides technological solutions to the marine automation field, delivers high-fidelity power plant simulation to utilities, supplies plant computer systems for Canadian heavy water reactors, and provides targeted controls and simulation solutions to the space sector.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News