atw - International Journal for Nuclear Power | 2.2024

Operation and New Build
29
A Review of Applications of
Virtual Reality and Serious
Games in Nuclear Industry
Training Scenarios
› Jeffrey Gibson, Prof. Alvaro Uribe Quevedo, Prof. Filippo Genco, Prof. Akira Tokuhiro
1. Introduction
Over the past decade, immersive technologies such as
Virtual Reality (VR) have left the realm of high-end
applications in industry and research, moving to the
consumer-level space with several applications aiming
to become ubiquitous in productivity, education, health
care, and predominantly entertainment, with video
games and their derivatives in the form of exergames
and serious games. VR allows recreating experiences
otherwise difficult to replicate in real life because of
health hazards or the availability of specialized equipment.
Such a feature is enabling VR to become a key
industrial technology with applications that can greatly
benefit training in general. To better understand the
current role of immersive technologies in nuclear
power plant settings, a scoping literature review was
conducted to further understand how both VR and
game design are being adapted and adopted in the
nuclear sector while identifying trends and opportunities
as the technology continues evolving.
While games for entertainment is a huge industry, the
recent availability of VR has spiked the adoption of this
technology. While VR and the application of game
design principles in scenarios other than entertainment
has been established since the 1990’s the recent
availability of both consumer-level headsets and software
development tools such as the Unity and Unreal
game engines, have made it possible to increase the
adoption and adaptation to scenarios not conceivable
in purely high-end industrial and research settings.
The use of games for applications other than entertainment,
led to the creation of “Serious Games”, that is,
games whose main purpose is learning, skills development,
and not entertain. However, it is important to
note, that fun and an engaging user experience is
critical for the success of serious games. Serious games
have become an effective learning tool that can be
applied to both academic and industrial environments
as it provides learning mechanics that are engaging
and can facilitate learning. For example, Serious Games
need some construct to describe what they are, and
how to analyze them. The Learning Mechanics-Game
Mechanics (LM-GM) formalism is described as a
mechanism for the study of serious games.
The goal of this review is to study the combination of
VR and Serious Games in industry applications, more
specifically for nuclear workers. We will discuss the
findings from the review and look for opportunities not
yet fulfilled by academic study.
2. Extended Reality
Virtual Reality technology has rapidly evolved in recent
years, “bringing a wide range of application areas due
to its flexibility to adapt to different problems and
domains” [1] This has also brought different interpretations
of what VR is. In this paper, VR is the
experience in which participants are fully immersed
in the virtual environment provided by head-mounted
displays (HMD)
2.1. Definitions
To begin with some definitions, Extended Reality (XR)
is an umbrella term for Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented
Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) [2] . Specifically,
according to Peterson [2] :
Augmented Reality (AR) – Computer rendered image
or data that is overlaid over the real world where your
brain is actually located. It is the addition of sensory
input to your brain while your brain is getting its normal
sensory input from its surroundings.
Mixed Reality (MR) – A variant on Virtual Reality in
which part computer rendered 3D elements and part
photographed real elements are combined into an
immersive experience that simulates a user’s physical
presence in the environment.
Virtual Reality (VR) – In pure VR, the brain is getting
all its sensory input from a time and place other than
Vol. 69 (2024)