The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved AREVA's new ARCADIA® core simulator system used for core performance analysis in pressurized water reactor plants in the United States.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved AREVA’s new ARCADIA® core simulator system used for core performance analysis in pressurized water reactor plants in the United States.

ARCADIA® is capable of modeling reactor core behaviour in great detail, AREVA said. As a result, calculation uncertainties are greatly reduced, allowing for improved operational performance and reactor safety margins.

AREVA described the NRC approval of the system as "a major step forward." It said that it plans to deploy the ARCADIA® code system to its markets worldwide.