L-3 MAPPS announced that it has won a contract from the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) to upgrade its simulator platform software for the incorporation of CATHARE, an advanced thermal-hydraulic calculation code used to study pressurized water reactors in accident situations. This award complements L-3’s work for AREVA in upgrading three of its engineering simulators, known as Simulateurs d’Analyse du Fonctionnement (SAF).
Working together on renovating their respective engineering simulators, the IRSN and AREVA have relied on L-3 MAPPS’ support since 2006. By 2009, the current IRSN simulator will have three configurations for the CP2 (900 MWe, 3-loop), DPY (1,300 MWe, 4-loop) and N4 (1,450 MWe, 4-loop) French-designed reactors. The project extension allows L-3 MAPPS to incorporate CATHARE within the CP2 and DPY configurations, and at the end of the project the IRSN and AREVA will have the same three configurations with the CATHARE code.
“We are honored that respected organizations like the IRSN continue to trust L-3 MAPPS with their simulation challenges,” said Michael Chatlani, vice president of marketing and sales for L-3 MAPPS Power Systems and Simulation. “L-3 MAPPS has firmly demonstrated its leading position in the supply of nuclear power plant simulators intended for operator training, and we appreciate this opportunity to further extend our expertise to engineering simulators.”
The SIPA (simulateur post-accidentel) simulator has been operating at the IRSN since 1992 and is used for thermal-hydraulic studies, especially for level 2 probabilistic safety analyses, training in physics and reactor control, and the preparation of national crisis exercise scenarios. Since 2002, IRSN has owned a CP1 (900 MWe, 3-loop) configuration that integrates the CATHARE code and makes the simulation of cold shutdown states possible. In 2003, the IRSN worked with L-3 MAPPS to design a solution that integrated CATHARE in L-3 MAPPS’ ROSE simulation environment (now known as the Orchid Modeling Environment), which resulted in a successful prototype.
CATHARE is a thermal-hydraulic computer engineering code for nuclear power plant safety analysis. The software is the effort of nearly three decades of cooperation between engineers of the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA), French electricity group EDF, AREVA and the IRSN. The version of the code being adapted for the simulators is CATHARE 2 version 2.5_1.
The IRSN is a public establishment with industrial and commercial activities placed under the joint supervision of France’s Ministers of Ecology and Sustainable Development, Health, Industry, Research and Defense. It conducts research programmes and studies and provides support to the public authorities on matters related to nuclear and radiological safety. IRSN expertise is also called upon by many French, European and international partners in the public and private sectors, and is involved in informing the public on nuclear and radiological risks.
L-3 MAPPS has more than 20 years of experience in pioneering technological advances in the marine automation field and more than 30 years of experience in delivering high-fidelity power plant simulation to leading utilities worldwide. In addition, the company has more than three decades of expertise in supplying plant computer systems for Canadian heavy water reactors. L-3 MAPPS also provides targeted controls and simulation solutions to the space sector.
Headquartered in New York City, L-3 Communications employs over 64,000 people worldwide and is a prime contractor in aircraft modernization and maintenance, C3ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) systems and government services. L-3 is also a leading provider of high technology products, subsystems and systems. The company reported 2007 sales of $14 billion.