The virtual nuclear laboratory

In a world where people are overwhelmed by visual information, from television and billboard ads to computer video games, it should come as no surprise that industries are increasingly relying on advanced visualization technology to better handle the increased flow of information. Advanced visualization tools are also being used to improve human-machine interface by providing much more realistic simulated environments for design, training, planning and "practice" purposes. For nuclear engineers, technology to simulate everything from simple half-life measurement experiments to complete control rooms, is readily available and can be used on platforms as accessible as personal computers - or as sophisticated as three-dimensional virtual reality systems. Presented herein is what to an outside observer might look like a typical computer video game, yet to a nuclear engineer it would more closely resemble a simulated nuclear environment, such as a radiation lab, or a control room of a research reactor. It is hoped that modeling tools developed in this project will help large-scale exploitation of virtual reality technology by nuclear engineers.