Get the latest tech news

Could AI Speed Up the Design of Nuclear Reactors?

A professor at Brigham Young University "has figured out a way to shave critical years off the complicated design and licensing processes for modern nuclear reactors," according to an announcement from the university. "AI is teaming up with nuclear power." The typical time frame and cost to licen...

By using AI in the time-consuming computational design process, [chemical engineering professor Matt] Memmott estimates a decade or more could be cut off the overall timeline, saving millions and millions of dollars in the process — which should prove critical given the nation's looming energy needs.... "Being able to reduce the time and cost to produce and license nuclear reactors will make that power cheaper and a more viable option for environmentally friendly power to meet the future demand...." For his research, he and BYU colleagues built a dozen machine learning algorithms to examine their ability to process the simulated data needed in designing a reactor. "Of course, humans still ultimately make the final design decisions and carry out all the safety assessments," Memmott says in the announcement, "but it saves a significant amount of time at the front end....

Get the Android app