U.Va. Wise installs SMR control room simulator

The University of Virginia’s College at Wise has acquired a nuclear control room simulator for small modular reactors (SMRs) to provide hands-on workforce training in the advanced nuclear and clean energy fields.

Its NuScale Energy Exploration (E2) Center, one of two in Virginia, was installed in January at the university’s Oxbow Center in St. Paul. A $275,000 Virginia Clean Energy Innovation Bank grant funded the simulator.

“I’m just so excited about this,” says Chancellor Donna P. Henry. “Moving forward, clean energy is going to be so important, not only to the commonwealth, but to the country, and having U.Va. Wise play a role [in] helping to get a workforce stood up to support that is an important piece of where we’re headed.”
As of late February, the college expected to start instructor training in late March and student and community instruction in April.

The simulator replicates a NuScale Power SMR control room. Users assume the role of control room operator and apply nuclear science and engineering principles through simulated, real-world nuclear power plant operation scenarios.

George Mason University last spring installed in its Arlington County building a slightly larger NuScale E2 Center, which U.Va. Wise faculty and staff have visited. U.Va. Wise may incorporate its simulator in physics, computer science and software engineering classes and in seminars for the community, Henry says.

NuScale is a provider of proprietary advanced SMR nuclear technology. SMRs are smaller than traditional nuclear reactors, with a generation capacity of perhaps 300 megawatts compared to 1,000 megawatts in a larger reactor.

No large-scale SMRs are operating in the United States yet, but the federal government in March approved a construction permit for a startup, TerraPower, to build an SMR in Wyoming.

Virginia utilities also are eyeing them as data centers drive up electricity demand. Southwest Virginia was initially considered a potential site for the state’s first SMR, but attention shifted to existing nuclear facilities. Dominion Energy, for example, is considering locating one at its Lake Anna nuclear power station.

Having a simulator at U.Va. Wise will give people seeking employment in the energy sector in Virginia or elsewhere “a leg up and help them go into the workforce,” Henry says. “We’re so close to Tennessee . . . so we might help them stand up a workforce.”