The Simulator Center

Originally started in 1977 with two simulators – one each for power plants with pressurized water and boiling water reactors – the Simulator Centre today runs 6 plant-specific simulators for 8 nuclear power plants.

We train operational personnel from one Dutch and all operating German nuclear power plants and contribute significantly to their safe operation. Simulator training is an essential component to achieve and durably maintain the specialist knowledge of licensed staff as required by the authorities.

The Simulator Centre of the KSG|GfS is visited by approx. 1,600 course participants from 8 nuclear power plants each year. They partake in approx. 350 courses and practise on 6 simulators, learning how to operate and understand their nuclear power plant in all conceivable operation conditions. This means that the KSG|GfS Simulator Centre is the largest facility of its type in the world.

The simulators exactly reproduce the referenced nuclear power plant in appearance and also in its technical, physical and temporal behaviour. The responsible operation staff encounter the same working conditions and requirements that would or could occur when operating and monitoring their plant in the real world.

The training programmes contain the entire range of nuclear power plant operations: normal operation, operational disturbances as well as all incidents and severe accidents right up to scenarios beyond the design basis. Furthermore, these can be combined in any combination, with varying intensity and under widely differing initial conditions. Training places equal emphasis on operating and understanding the technology and on people’s behaviour: their own work behaviour, teamwork, communication, decision-making and leadership behaviour.