Application of Virtual Reality Technology in Nuclear Power Plant Control Room Simulator

Main control room simulator is widely used in design verification and operator training for nuclear power plant. The simulator needs to implement the arrangement, environment, human machine interface and function of main control room, which should be the same as much as possible. For designer, each type of reactor needs an individual simulator for design verification. As the number of unit increased, the simulator will consume a lot of space and difficult to reuse for other project. In addition, design verification for control room and I&C system need to start at the early stage of a project and is usually an iterative process with the design work. Build a control room facility for simulator needs a lot of time and is difficult to modify once constructed. To make the simulator more flexible and match the project schedule, virtual reality technology can be used to replace or extend traditional control room simulator with approximately the same arrangement, environment, human machine interface and function. In the full scope engineering simulator of HPR1000 unit, virtual reality control room interface has been designed as an extension of real control room implementation. The designer or operator can control and monitor the power plant in virtual reality environment, which just feels like real control room. It also can be used for other type of reactor by connecting to other simulator server and adding corresponding control room model in virtual reality software. With this preliminary application, control room simulator can be implemented in a short time and flexible for modification, which give designer more time and space for design verification and optimization. Once it applied in training simulator of nuclear power plant in future, it may provide a low cost and flexible option for operator training.