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| Five years of growth | ||
| March 2014 | ||
This is the sixth operating year for Thunder España Simulación. Since the company was founded in 2009 revenue has tripled and staff has increased up to the eight workers, most of them engineering graduates, who are currently employed in the new offices inaugurated last summer. Growth has been fueled by expanding orders from our base customer and technology partner Corys Thunder, Inc., the American subsidiary of CORYS T.E.S.S.
Most of the company’s projects are now related to software and graphics development based on ThunderEdit, the graphical editor and model builder integrated in the T-Rex simulation platform, which is maintained in Santander. T-Rex, property of Corys Thunder, Inc., is the most widely used platform in nuclear training simulators in the US and has recently been introduced to Europe. Besides, the company continues to carry out active business development strategies pursuing opportunities in the regional market, Spain and the European Union.
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Fundraising run for the Philippines | |
| February 2014 | ||
On February 22, Santander’s Castroverde Elementary and Secondary School held a fundraising run to help rebuild the country after the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan on November 8, 2013. Thunder España Simulación contributed sponsoring the event and supporting the organization. More than 1,000 runners, many of them kids and their families, participated in one of the scheduled 2K and 4K races. The event started a “Solidarity Week”, with multiple activities, which raised almost 14,000 EUR for the Guiuan North District in the province of Eastern Samar.
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Strong presence at NESTet 2013, European conference on nuclear education and training | |
| November 2013 | ||
From the “nuclear renaissance” of a few years ago to the lowered expectations after the Fukushima disaster, education and training remains one of the biggest challenges for future nuclear development and the safe operation of existing plants. The fact was recognized again at NESTet 2013, the latest edition of the bi-annual European Nuclear Society meeting on the topic, which was held in Madrid from November 17 to 21 and gathered more than one hundred experts from the five continents.
Thunder España took active part in the parallel sessions under the title “What is the situation with regard to infrastructure and tools for nuclear education and training?”, with Mario Garcés chairing one of them and presenting the paper “Operator Training in Severe Accident after Fukushima: a Real-life Example” (downloadable here). The article details the one-year long experience at Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant with the new MELCOR-based severe accident models integrated in their full scope training simulator. It is mainly the work of simulator instructors at Monticello and CORYS engineers in the US who completed the implementation.
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Thunder España Simulación joins regional industry cluster | |
| August 2013 | ||
The cluster, promoted by the regional government of Cantabria, has been established to better position local companies for the newest market opportunities in the nuclear sector. Based on the varied technical capabilities of the members companies and some projects currently under way, three main strategic targets have been identified: the planned centralized nuclear storage facility (ATC) to be built in central Spain, the ITER experimental fusion reactor under construction in Cadarache (France) and the regulatory changes and new requirements for nuclear plants as a consequence of the Fukushima disaster.
Thunder España is one of the few software companies in the group and the only one specialized in training simulation. Among the other members, which include not just private companies but also research institutions and the local university, are well-known corporations such as Equipos Nucleares S.A. (ENSA), the Spanish manufacturer of large nuclear components, and ATOS Worldgrid, the “smart energy” division of the huge IT multinational with an important branch in Santander. A preliminary portfolio of the cluster members can be downloaded here (mostly in Spanish). |
