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IFE continues development of the Virtual Reality system VRdose for radiation dose calculation on assignment by the JNC

The VRdose Project was started in the autumn of 1999 at the VR Centre at IFE Halden. The aim of the project is to develop virtual reality tools for use in the decommissioning of the Fugen nuclear power plant, situated on the south west of Japan. These tools should be used in planning and administration of the decommissioning process, but also as training environments and for demonstrations to the public.

The Fugen NPP is a 165MWe pressure-tube type reactor. It is heavy-water moderated and light-water cooled. It went into commercial operation in 1979. The operation of the plant will end by March 2003 and the decommissioning work will be supervised by the Japanese government.

The main requirements for the Fugen Decommissioning Project (FDP) that started in June 1999 are:

Information should be open to the public.
Utilising and sharing international and domestic experience and knowledge that benefits the project.
Utilising modern technologies.
Economical with detailed waste evaluation.
Environmentally friendly by resource recycling.
Beneficial for the local community.

The decommissioning planning phase is complex, as the dismantling process which will require a great deal of manpower takes place inside a radioactive environment. By using software tools to simulate the work tasks it is possible to reduce the man-hours spent on the project. The pictures below are snapshots from the VRdose application.

The first phase of the project was completed in March 2000, and a prototype of the system was delivered. The prototype included an optimised and simplified model of the Fugen NPP. Inside this virtual world a user can walk around and also record movements inside the plant. Recorded walking routes can be played back at any time, and they can be assigned to one or more workers entered into the systems database.

For each worker and work task, radiation information is computed and stored to the database. The radiation information can then be displayed as graphs or tables. Radiation can be displayed on a 2D Map and also inside the 3D model, enabling the user to plan his work task with as low radiation exposure as possible.

In the second phase of the project, several of the functionalities from the prototype will be further developed, and new features like allowing teams of manikins to work with dismantling tasks together, will be added. Halden VR Centre will also assist the JNC in planning of an advanced VR visualisation facility at the Fugen NPP: