3 ms·

Nuclear Reactor SIM by PeteTimesSix

58 points by ofrzeta 1y ago

HelloUsername 1y ago
Not great, not terrible
maxbaines 1y ago
Reminds me of http://www.gamtech.com/oakflat.aspx http://www.gamtech.com/oakflat.aspx loved blowing triggering SCRAM as a kid
_n_b_ 1y ago
As a nuclear engineer, it's hard to use these kinds of intro tools without shouting things at your monitor. For this, it was the omission of xenon when discussing simulating reactor transients. I get that it's meant to be overly simplified, and it's a neat idea that is probably helpful for communicating some key concepts.
- mnw21cam 1y ago
  FWIW, Xenon was discussed, but it didn't go into enough detail about why Xenon matters and how it can create transients.
  - skeezyboy 1y ago
    i thought it went in to sufficient depth
- ofrzeta 1y ago
  then give us better tools! :) Most of the sims require (at least?) registration with the IAEA: https://www.iaea.org/topics/nuclear-power-reactors/nuclear-reactor-simulators-for-education-and-training https://www.iaea.org/topics/nuclear-power-reactors/nuclear-r... (I want that Micro-Physics Nuclear Reactor Simulator) Then there's this https://dalton-nrs.manchester.ac.uk/ https://dalton-nrs.manchester.ac.uk/ but it's down for "maintenance" (a web site - can you imagine?!) I found this interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59hVaIjxMIM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59hVaIjxMIM but people say it does no longer work on recent Windows version. Also I don't like to install random binaries from Mega or similar. In the end a realistic reactor simulation would probably to complicated for the layman, anyway.
  - tiberiusteng 1y ago
    try Nucleares (on Steam), it's a heavily gamified one but does cover various important aspects, including Xenon poisoning. You can find some play videos on YouTube.
- ethan_smith 1y ago
  Xenon-135's huge neutron absorption cross-section and its buildup/decay dynamics create the "xenon poisoning" effect that makes power changes tricky and can even prevent reactor restart after shutdown - a critical aspect of real reactor operation.
seivan 1y ago
[dead]
bob1029 1y ago
> This webpage was reloaded because it was using significant memory I like how my browser melts down before the reactor can.
foobarbecue 1y ago
Fun, and I learned something! However, it crashed after a few mins with an alert popup saying "WebGL context lost, please reload the page"
evanjrowley 1y ago
There's also PCTRAN from Micro-simulation Technology: http://www.microsimtech.com/pctran/ http://www.microsimtech.com/pctran/ You must provide an email adderss to download their simulators. I haven't tried PCTRAN on Windows 11, but they definitley work on Windows 7 through 10.
mikerg87 1y ago
I had a lot of fun playing this as a kid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scram_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scram_(video_game)

58 points by ofrzeta 1y ago

Not great, not terrible

Reminds me of http://www.gamtech.com/oakflat.aspx http://www.gamtech.com/oakflat.aspx loved blowing triggering SCRAM as a kid

_n_b_ 1y ago

As a nuclear engineer, it's hard to use these kinds of intro tools without shouting things at your monitor. For this, it was the omission of xenon when discussing simulating reactor transients. I get that it's meant to be overly simplified, and it's a neat idea that is probably helpful for communicating some key concepts.

mnw21cam 1y ago
FWIW, Xenon was discussed, but it didn't go into enough detail about why Xenon matters and how it can create transients.
- skeezyboy 1y ago
  i thought it went in to sufficient depth
ofrzeta 1y ago
then give us better tools! :) Most of the sims require (at least?) registration with the IAEA: https://www.iaea.org/topics/nuclear-power-reactors/nuclear-reactor-simulators-for-education-and-training https://www.iaea.org/topics/nuclear-power-reactors/nuclear-r... (I want that Micro-Physics Nuclear Reactor Simulator) Then there's this https://dalton-nrs.manchester.ac.uk/ https://dalton-nrs.manchester.ac.uk/ but it's down for "maintenance" (a web site - can you imagine?!) I found this interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59hVaIjxMIM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59hVaIjxMIM but people say it does no longer work on recent Windows version. Also I don't like to install random binaries from Mega or similar. In the end a realistic reactor simulation would probably to complicated for the layman, anyway.
- tiberiusteng 1y ago
  try Nucleares (on Steam), it's a heavily gamified one but does cover various important aspects, including Xenon poisoning. You can find some play videos on YouTube.
ethan_smith 1y ago
Xenon-135's huge neutron absorption cross-section and its buildup/decay dynamics create the "xenon poisoning" effect that makes power changes tricky and can even prevent reactor restart after shutdown - a critical aspect of real reactor operation.

seivan 1y ago

[dead]

bob1029 1y ago

> This webpage was reloaded because it was using significant memory I like how my browser melts down before the reactor can.

foobarbecue 1y ago

Fun, and I learned something! However, it crashed after a few mins with an alert popup saying "WebGL context lost, please reload the page"

evanjrowley 1y ago

There's also PCTRAN from Micro-simulation Technology: http://www.microsimtech.com/pctran/ http://www.microsimtech.com/pctran/ You must provide an email adderss to download their simulators. I haven't tried PCTRAN on Windows 11, but they definitley work on Windows 7 through 10.

mikerg87 1y ago

I had a lot of fun playing this as a kid: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scram_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scram_(video_game)