Nucleoeléctrica Argentina S.A. (NA-SA), the operator of the Dr. Néstor Carlos Kirchner (Atucha) nuclear power plant, has awarded Tecnatom a contract for a maintenance and technical assistance service covering the full-scope simulator, the interactive graphic simulator of the main control room and the emergency control room for Group II of the plant.
The objective of the project is to maintain the physical and functional fidelity of the simulator with respect to the reference plant through compliance with the criteria and requirements established in ANSI/ANS-3.5, the international standard governing simulator operation and maintenance.
Each year a new simulation load will be generated, which will be tested by a joint team of Tecnatom and NA-SA engineers, first on the test platform at the Tecnatom headquarters and subsequently on the simulator in Argentina. This will allow the simulator to be kept updated with the status of the plant, thus maintaining the highest criteria of quality in the plant operator training phases.
This simulator was developed using in-house technology with a joint team of NA-SA and Tecnatom personnel and was delivered in 2013. Since then it has been used within the framework of the operator training plans and was also used as part of the plant start-up process. In 2015 the simulator was transferred to its definitive location in a new building on the Atucha nuclear site.