Software and hardware up-gradation of compact pressurized water reactor simulator

The work presented in this paper is aimed at the up-gradation of software and hardware modules of a compact pressurized water reactor simulator. This simulator was originally based on programmable data processor (PDP-11/34) computer and it had been facing frequent troubles due to obsolescence and unavailability of spare parts. Furthermore, the FORTRAN based software was difficult to maintain and had a console interface which was old-fashioned and difficult to use. So, these simulator modules needed to be replaced by state of the art ones. We developed Visual C++ based application that uses modified FORTRAN subroutines and has graphical user interface (GUI) for operator panel and instructor terminal. Hardware up-gradation includes replacement of PDP-11/34 computer with an Intel Microsoft Windows XP based desktop system and replacement of color CRT monitors and associated display system with LCDs and video graphics array (VGA) cards. Additionally, the dedicated interface card between the computer and operator panel is replaced with an arduino-mega based interface card. The newer modules provide reliable operation thereby assuring continuous availability of the simulator to its users. The C++ based GUI provides far more efficient and easy operations from the instructor terminal. The upgraded simulator is easy to maintain and user friendly that makes it venerable for introducing the fundamental concepts of nuclear power plants to trainees.