September-October 2018 NPJ

Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2018 NuclearPlantJournal.com 33 now need to be ported to other modes of interaction and control. Head mounted display systems, such as Oculus-Rift and HTC-VIVE, now come with their own controllers that are tracked using local cameras. These can allow different ways to interact with the control panel, and even to pick up and move objects with a hand gesture. These 3D models can be made even more accessible to the general public if they are available on smartphones as apps. A short-lived challenge with smartphones-based apps of nuclear- specific applications was that they allowed very limited modes of interaction with the model. The challenge has been addressed by simply connecting the smartphone using Bluetooth with an XBOX controller, thus making available joysticks and several buttons to interact with the virtual model. Figure 5 shows a picture of a user playing the dose minimization game on a smartphone and controlling it using an XBOX controller. In summary, several 3D, immersive and interactive models have been developed by VERL. The features of such models can be implemented for workplace training, safety analysis purposes, and also provide convenient alternatives to other practices. For example, training of large number of personnel in a short period of time, essential steps at any refueling exercise, can take advantage of rapidly advancing and less expensive VR/AR. Acknowledgment Graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Illinois have contributed to the development of these models. Contact: Rizwan-uddin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 104 S. Wright St, Urbana, IL L61801; telephone: (217) 244-4944, fax: (217) 333-2906, email: rizwan@illinois.edu . Consistent with testimony that Jeff Merrifield provided during a May 22, 2018 hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, we would make the following four recommendations: 1. Congress should direct the Secretary of Energy to establish an adequate “strategic reserve” of higher assay LEU at an enrichment of 19.75% in order to serve the needs of the advanced reactor community to support near term need for lead test assemblies. Optimally, the reserve should contain at least 6MT by 2020 and at least an additional 30MT by 2025. 2. Congress should direct the Secretary of Energy to develop a fast neutron test facility with a design requirement that utilizes higher assay LEU to serve as a catalyst for the early production of this material. 3. Congress should direct the Secretary of Energy to conduct a study of various alternatives to procure domestic uranium, enriched up to 5% to use as the feedstock for the down blending of HEU to 19.75%. 4. In addition to the strategy included in recommendation 1, Congress could direct the Secretary of Energy to facilitate procurement of HA- LEU in the domestic or international commercial market. Contact: Jeffrey Merrifield, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP, telephone: (202) 663-8718, email: jeff.merrifield@ pillsburylaw.com. High Assay... ( Continued from page 29) Nuclear Plant Journal Welcomes Technical Articles. Email: michelle@goinfo.com Telephone: (630) 364- 4780 Fig. 5. Dose minimization game being played on a smartphone, and controlled using an XBOX game controller. “Cheat” mode has been turned on by pressing the “A” key.