The Spanish Nuclear Society (SNE) held its 37th Annual Meeting on September 28-30 in the city of Burgos (Spain), gathering more than 600 professionals of the sector.

Thunder España took part in one of the sessions to introduce the Nuclear Group of Cantabria (GNC) along with the other member companies: Cantarey Reinosa (Gamesa Group), Centro Tecnológico de Componentes, CIC Consulting Informático, ENSA, Inesco Ingenieros and Norca Ingeniería de Calidad (Intertek Group).

The group was formally constituted with the aims of promoting the capabilities of companies located in the province of Cantabria and their potential synergies. The contribution that these companies do to the nuclear industry is very significant compared to the small size of the region: around 1000 jobs and an annual revenue over 150 million euro.
 

Representantes de las empresas del GNC, de izquierda a derecha: Iñaki Gorrochategui (CTC), Carlos Marcos (Norca), Daniel García (Cantarey), Miguel Sierra (CIC), Roberto Lacalle (Inesco), Sylvie García (Thunder), Román Cicero (Inesco) y Mario Garcés (Thunder)

As part of a large CORYS T.E.S.S. contract with Slovenske Elektrarne -part of the Enel Group and owner of the only two Slovakian nuclear plants (Bohunice and Mochovce)-, the T-REX simulation environment will be installed at the Mochovce 1 & 2 training simulator in replacement of the original platform delivered by GSE Systems Inc. This is the first time the T-REX environment will be used outside the U.S. where, in recent years, it has became the industry standard.

The purpose of this award is the whole renovation of the full-scope simulators at both Slovakian facilities, which will be upgraded to the latest simulation technology. In the case of Mochovce, a plant with two 470 MW VVER400/V-213 PWR units, the scope of the project includes the simulator rehost to PCs, the installation of upgraded models and the replacement of the I/O system. Thunder España has been subcontracted to support the development of flow systems models with ThunderFlow.
 

The Mochovce plant is located in Eastern Slovakia, just 86 miles from Vienna

Monticello glass panel simulator

Different American nuclear plants recently contracted the services of Corys Thunder Inc. for the development and installation of glass panel simulators.

This type of simulator consists of touch screen modules, displaying high fidelity representations of the control room panels.

Glass panel simulators are a remarkable complement to full scope simulators training capabilities, as their usage level is often near to 100%.

Thunder España was entrusted with the enhancing of ThunderEdit's graphics rendering to support this new use. Moreover, ThunderEspaña took part in the design of the graphics for Monticello (Minnesota), which purchased several modules.

The other plants that have acquired this innovative tool or included it within their upgrade plans are Calvert Cliffs (Maryland), Watts Bar (Tennessee), Prairie Island (Minnesota) and Waterford (Louisiana).

Siemens ASD main screen simulation in ThunderEdit (enlarge)

Thunder España is taking part in a simulator upgrade project for Limerick Generating Station, a two-unit General Electric BWR producing 2,345 net megawatts located in Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

The project is part of the Exelon Nuclear fleetwide retrofit of recirculation pumps with adjustable-speed drives (ASDs) to replace the original motor-generator (MG) sets.

The human-machine interface of the Siemens ASD installed at the plant is simulated with ThunderEdit, T-REX's graphical editor & model builder, which, in this case, will be integrated with EXITECH Chattanooga™ simulator platform.