Development of new Micro-Physics Nuclear Reactor Simulator™ and its possibility for introductory education of nuclear engineering

This paper describes recent activity on development of the Micro-Physics Nuclear Reactor Simulator™ and its application to introductory educations of nuclear engineering at high schools and university. The simulator has been continuously improved with active feedbacks from existing and potential users through its applications to exercises in classes/seminars. A newly developed reactor core transient analysis code, RAMBO-T has been adopted in the simulator along with SIMULATE-3K by Studsvik Scandpower Inc. (Borkowski, 1994) The internal data structure has been revised so that any combinations of the target reactor type, the core transient analysis code and the display language can be established. A new graphical user interface was implemented to realize the intuitive and easy-to-understand operations by novice users. The improved version of the Micro-Physics Nuclear Reactor Simulator has been practically used at educational institutions. In order to contribute to the activities on human resource development in the field of nuclear engineering, it is planned to donate the Micro-Physics Simulator™ Lite, a variation of the simulator that supports the only transient core analysis with RAMBO-T, to IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency. It will be included into the "NPP Simulators suite for Education" where complimentary copies are distributed to the member states countries. (author)