New simulator commissioned at Bruce plant
29 January 2020
Bruce Power has completed a training simulator at its Bruce nuclear power plant in Ontario, Canada, that will be used to train and test certified operators to extend the operation of the plant to 2064. The simulator complements the existing simulators at the site and uses state-of-the-art software modelling and analytical-based computer codes.
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Bruce Power staff celebrate the completion of the new simulator (Image: Bruce Power)
Work on the new simulator began in 2016 and included the construction of a building, computational and analytical software packages and models, and control room simulation. Housed in an extension to the existing Bruce Learning Centre, it is visually an exact replica of the unit 7 and common services (also known as Unit 0) control rooms. Training on the new simulator began on 6 January and has since been running daily. The project was executed by the Bruce Power Simulator Support team, with assistance from a number of vendor companies.
"This is another tremendous example of the innovation our people bring to work each and every day," said Bruce Power President and CEO Mike Rencheck. "It's this sort of ingenuity and creativity that will ensure we continue to be successful, and ensure our staff receive the best training to prepare them for the roles." He added, "We are going to be here until 2064, training generations of new operators. We are going to get a lot of use out of this over the years."
Bruce Power earlier this month formally began the execution phase of its first Major Component Replacement (MCR) project by taking Bruce 6 offline. Six Candu units at the Bruce site are to be upgraded between now and 2033, extending their operation to 2064. Bruce Power's overall life extension programme started in January 2016 and will see Bruce units 3-8 undergo refurbishment (units 1 and 2 have already been refurbished). The MCR will take 46 months to complete for each unit.
Researched and written by World Nuclear News