DOE demonstrates AI tools to accelerate nuclear reactor licensing

The U.S. Department of Energy, in collaboration with Idaho National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Microsoft and Everstar, has demonstrated the use of artificial intelligence tools to convert a safety analysis document into sections equivalent to a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission license application. The team applied Everstar's Gordian AI solution, built on the Microsoft Azure platform, to the Preliminary Documented Safety Analysis for the National Reactor Innovation Center's generic high temperature gas reactor. The tool produced a 208-page document in one day. The same task typically requires a team of people between four and six weeks. Gordian was designed for nuclear-grade technical work. It includes physics and engineering tools and uses semantic ontology mapping to compute and verify output rather than infer it. The AI also identified missing or incomplete information required for a complete NRC application. An expert subsequently evaluated the output for accuracy, missing information, consistency, grammar and structure. The review found that the document demonstrated quality, rigor and depth and that the tool correctly identified its own gaps in data knowledge. Rian Bahran, deputy assistant secretary for nuclear reactors, said the partnership has the potential to transform how industry prepares its regulatory submissions and deploys nuclear energy while upholding the highest standards of safety and compliance. Kevin Kong, chief executive and founder of Everstar, said the company is partnering with INL to accelerate regulatory review and commercialization. Carmen Krueger, corporate vice president for U.S. federal at Microsoft, said the work shows how secure, scalable AI technologies can address key energy challenges. The demonstration is part of efforts under the Genesis Mission. The Department of Energy recently announced 293 million dollars in competitive funding to advance national science and technology challenges, including one focused on expediting nuclear energy deployment.