GoldSim technology can be traced back to 1990, when a group of engineers at Golder Associates, an international group of engineering consulting firms, was asked by the United States Department of Energy to develop probabilistic simulation software that could be used to help with decision support and management within the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, the organization responsible for the safe disposal of the nation's nuclear wastes.

GoldSim Precursors

The initial result of this effort was two DOS-based programs (RIP and STRIP). RIP (Repository Integration Program) was used to simulate the long term performance of engineered facilities to contain the waste. STRIP (STrategy Integration Program) was a strategic planning simulator, and was used to assist in evaluating options for development and licensing of waste disposal facilities. RIP and STRIP were subsequently used worldwide, primarily in support of radioactive waste management and mining projects.

Although these precursors to GoldSim were powerful simulators, the user interface tended to be complex and presentation capabilities were limited. To address these limitations, design of a graphical, Windows-based version of RIP and STRIP began in 1996. This effort, funded by Golder Associates, the US Department of Energy, the Japanese government (JNC), and the Spanish government (ENRESA) produced GoldSim. GoldSim was first released in 1999.

Application Potential

From the outset, the GoldSim development team saw the potential for the powerful probabilistic framework upon which the software was based to be extended into other applications (beyond radioactive waste management).  As a result, in contrast to RIP and STRIP, which were very specialized tools, GoldSim was designed from the ground up as a general-purpose, probabilistic simulation framework. Functionality for dealing with hazardous and radioactive waste management applications was isolated into a specialized module. The basic software framework is a powerful general-purpose simulator that has subsequently been used in a wide variety of applications, ranging from water resource management to risk analysis of space missions.

GoldSim Growth

After GoldSim was released in 1999, it was used as a proprietary tool by Golder Associates and was generally provided only to our clients. In April of 2002, Golder Associates began licensing GoldSim to others as a stand-alone software product.

In order to provide the flexibility required to continue to grow the business into new arenas and better service our growing list of customers and clients, the GoldSim development team purchased the software from Golder Associates and established a new, independent company, GoldSim Technology Group LLC (GTG), on February 1, 2004. (The detailed history of GoldSim through the founding of GTG in 2004 is discussed in this blog post).

Since the founding of GTG, the user-base has grown rapidly, and there are currently nearly 1000 organizations and many thousands of users in over 60 countries around the world. The software is very actively developed, and continues to evolve in response to customer's needs.