Areas of Focus



Current Areas of Focus

Center for Safe and Secure Nuclear Energy

The CAER research and education facility is home to the Center of Safe and Secure Nuclear Energy (CSSNE), which focuses on research and development (R&D) in nuclear energy and associated workforce development. The mission of the CSSNE is to: (1) conduct applied and basic research to create new and improved instrumentation and control technologies to ensure the safety and security of nuclear power plants, (2) transfer technology from the research laboratories to practical, commercial applications, (3) educate a new generation of students in nuclear reactor operation and control, and the design, analysis, operation, and maintenance of instrumentation and control systems, and (4) serve the nuclear industry by providing research, technology transfer, and educational activities that support workforce training and development, as well as new technology creation and commercialization. We have from the outset established relationships with the local nuclear industry to ensure the greatest possible success for our vision. CSSNE’s goal is to be the national leading center of excellence dedicated to the assurance of safety and security in nuclear instrumentation and control room systems.


FIGURE 1. CONCEPTUAL VIEW OF THE CENTER FOR SAFE AND SECURE NUCLEAR ENERGY

Figure 1 illustrates the five research and education thrust areas co-located in the CAER-CSSSNE facility to provide the necessary synergistic collaboration between the research efforts. These research areas are:

  • Advanced Configurable Control Room Research Facility

  • Human Machine Interface Systems and Technology

  • Advanced Modeling and Simulation of Nuclear Power Plant and Reactor Operations

  • New Analysis and Assessment for Safety and Security Assessment

  • Advanced Digital I&C Systems and Technology

 

B&W mPowerTM Integrated System Test (IST) Facility 

The IST facility includes a scaled prototype of the B&W mPowerTM reactor that will undergo extensive testing. All of the technical features of the B&W mPower integral reactor are included in the IST, although the source of energy is electricity rather than nuclear.

This three-year imitative will collect data to verify the reactor design and safety performance, supporting B&W's licensing activities with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The program is supported, in part, by a grant from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission. Click here to learn more about the mPowerTM reactor.

A Heterogeneous Cognitive Radio Network Testbed

The Center for Advanced Engineering and Research (CAER), in collaboration with Virginia Tech and multiple industry partners is proposing the creation of a cognitive network testbed at the new CAER facility in Bedford County. This testbed is heterogeneous in at least three ways: it provides indoor and outdoor coverage; it deploys multiple cognitive radio platforms; and it includes both static and mobile nodes.   Cognitive radio research to date has focused on dynamic spectrum access. However, cognition and real-time reconfigurability of the radios enable a much broader range of wireless applications. We envision our testbed to be used both for “traditional” cognitive radio experiments, such as the opportunistic use of spectrum, and for a next generation of cognitive applications, including the use of cognitive radio in 4G cellular systems, wireless distributed computing, and indoor localization.  The inclusion of three types of cognitive radio hardware enables experiments in interoperability between cognitive radio platforms.  In addition to research, the testbed will also allow graduate students to interact directly with industrial partners, grounding their research on real technical issues.  A testbed in central Virginia would enable research on next generation mobile networks and public safety applications that are one of the key technology clusters in the region.

Alternate Energy Source Analysis Tool(AESAT)

The CAER is collaborating with TRAX International in Lynchburg on the development of a dynamic modeling and simulation tool that can be configured to provide a high-fidelity performance replica of the energy balance profile at Military and Defense installations. This dynamic energy profile will consist of:

  1. Current purchased power for base operations

  2. Any on-site energy generation to enhance local power support of base operations

  3. All transmission & distribution lines and systems on the base including substations

  4. Aggregated consumptive loads on base ranging from recreational to security systems

This new product is called Alternative Energy Source Analysis Tool (AESAT). AESAT consists of a server based computer network to drive the custom designed model engines, HMI and graphics which will represent each installation’s unique power profile.

The new AESAT simulation will enable the client’s Energy Manager to:

  • Optimize the existing energy generation/consumption network

  • Evaluate the most effective power generation technologies and configurations

  • Determine behavior of the facility during abnormal situations (unscheduled outage, natural disaster, terrorist attack)