Iran’s nuclear professionals are now able to train using a fully Iranian-designed and built reactor simulator.

The simulator was unveiled in the presence of Eslami (centre) and AEOI deputy heads Seyed Amir Hossein Feghhi, head of NSTRI, and Mohammad Ghannadi Maraghe, head of Nuclear Planning and Strategic Supervision (Image: AEOI) The Generic Nuclear Reactor Training simulator – or GNRTS – has been designed and built by the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI). It represents a two-loop pressurised water reactor (PWR) with a thermal power of 100 MW and a net electrical output of 30 MWe, with a core of 21 rectangular 17×17 fuel assemblies and a fuel enrichment of 4.9%.

The real-time simulator can recreate various scenarios to train technical personnel and nuclear engineering students in the basic concepts of operational characteristics of a PWR plant in normal operating conditions as well as in abnormal and emergency conditions.

An opening ceremony for the simulator, which is at the AEOI’s Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute (NSTRI), was held in July. During the ceremony, AEOI head Mohammad Eslami said the NSTRI had been assigned a mission to train the human resources that will be needed over the coming years if it is to achieve its 20 GWe nuclear capacity goal. “This simulator is, in principle, a sign of confidence in our youth, a symbol of success and self-belief, which in its own way, is highly valued,” he said.

Earlier versions of the simulator have now been installed at eight Iranian universities where they are being used for teaching purposes, Eslami said, and added that the AEOI would be willing to export its new simulator system to other countries, in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Iran’s Bushehr unit 1 – a Russian-designed VVER-1000 PWR, which uses infrastructure that was already in place from a previous, uncompleted German-designed plant – began commercial operation in 2013. A second VVER-1000 is under construction at Bushehr, with further units planned or proposed at Bushehr and other sites. The Bushehr reactor operates under IAEA safeguards.