USNRC’s Nuclear Plant Analyzer: Engineering Simulation Capabilities in the 1990’s

The Nuclear Plant Analyzer (NPA) is the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) state-of-the-art nuclear reactor simulation capability. This computer software package integrates high fidelity nuclear reactor simulation codes such as the TRAC and RELAP5 series of codes with color graphics display techniques and advanced workstation hardware. The NPA first became operational at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) in 1983. Since then, the NPA system has been used for a number of key reactor safety-related tasks ranging from plant operator guidelines evaluation to emergency preparedness training.The NPA system is seen by the NRC as their vehicle to maintain modern, state-of-the-art simulation capabilities for use into the 1990s. System advancements are envisioned in two areas: first, software improvements to existing and evolving plant simulation codes utilized by the NPA through the use of such techniques as parallel and vector processing and artificial intelligence expert systems, and second, advanced hardware implementations using combinations of super-, minisuper-, supermini-, and supermicrocomputer systems and satellite data communications networks for high flexibility and greatly increased NPA system performance.