Cost and Schedule Reduction of Nuclear Power Plant Construction Using 4D CAD and Immersive Display Technologies

Abstract

A strategic goal of the Nuclear Engineering Institute as defined in Vision 2020 includes the addition of 50,000 MW of safe and reliable nuclear plant capability in the United States by 2020. To meet this goal, the new plants will need to be developed in an efficient and safe manner. New visualization technologies including 4D CAD and immersive display environments offer promising avenues to improve design, construction, and operation processes of these complex facilities. This paper presents our progress to evaluate the application of 4D CAD and immersive display tools to reduce the time to and costs of constructing new nuclear plants. The results from the initial phase of this research show that the use of a virtual immersion environment to display the 3D plant design is beneficial to the designer and contractor. Our current focus is on the development of tools to allow construction experts to better visualize the construction sequence using 4D CAD so they can provide critical design feedback prior to starting construction. This will ultimately reduce the number of construction interferences in the field and help minimize the quantity of changes during construction.