14 July 2008

Wonder if Rickover is rolling over in his grave

One of the things I was told early on in my nuclear training was that we went to prototype because Rickover would not allow the use of simulators.

Now this:
Adm. Kirkland Donald, director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion, attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony. The Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program developed the simulator, which provides operators with a realistic, real-time depiction of actual conditions for a range of normal operational and simulated casualty situations.

I wonder what Bubblehead has to say?

4 comments:

Chap said...

Showed up too late for the Day's paywall--didn't get to read the article.

We had a simulator that was 'coming on line soon' in prototype, actually. This was in like 1992 or so. IIRC the fun police were in force on it; if you jacked up something on the sim it was a critique and report of the type you might know too well just like on the real thing.

I didn't see the point of the thing but then again we were only there for a couple of "watches".

Anonymous said...

Chap, the similator actually came on line in mid-late '92. I stood many a qualified RO out in the "2 Blue Trailers" just inside the gates at the Charleston prototype.

Indeed, if you screwed up out there, you might just as well have melted down the real thing because I saw an EM and an ET get de-nuked for messing up a drill watch out there.

Chap said...

Same same at MARF; I was at the time up in Upstate New York digging through 41" of snow...those were indeed the days.

Anonymous said...

If this is the FIDE that we are talking about, I am good with it. As a senior supervisory watch for some sensitive "pop" tests, we ran watch sections through the evolutions, with associated failures. The response was very similar to that which was observed on the actual plant when we went "live". The deal about critiques and disqual is hard to swallow at first, but eventually you realize that it is a effort to enforce the same standards as in the plant, such that watchstanders never begin to think of the plant as a game. The real benefit that I saw in this was for EOOWs, the replication of casualties one after the other is tremendous for learning the "process" of recovering the plant. I remember running close to a dozen flooding drills, with various permutations, in a row. It drives home systematic response... and the ENG can emphasize the EOOW getting everything in a sock, propulsion, a TG, a feedpump, and an R114. Okay we're stable....take a breath... My only complaint is that to maximize the tax payer dollar the ran this thing round the clock for a while...nothing like being in port and standing the 18-24 EOOW...