How the US Nuclear Plant Fleet Is Leaning Into AI (ieee.org)
- Reference: 0186245050
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/10/12/0445233/how-the-us-nuclear-plant-fleet-is-leaning-into-ai
- Source link: https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-assistants-nuclear-power-plant
> In August, California-based Atomic Canyon launched [2]NIVA , the Nuclear Industry Virtual Assistant, which was developed in cooperation with nuclear-industry groups. The assistant was pilot-tested in nuclear plants run by Constellation Energy and is now available to the United States' entire fleet of reactors.... Meanwhile, the AI-for-nuclear startup [3]Nuclearn says its products have gone to work with more than 65 U.S. partners, a total that includes many traditional plants but also an integration with NuScale Power Corp. that is working toward advanced small nuclear reactors. Microsoft and Nvidia have [4]collaborated on a project to apply AI toward optimizing "the entire life cycle of a nuclear plant, spanning site permitting, design, construction, and continuous operations."
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> The reason for the rapid adoption, according to Nuclearn CFO and cofounder Jerrold Vincent, is twofold. First, the technology companies banking their futures on AI are also keen [5]on a revival of nuclear power to provide the electricity for all those data centers. Vincent says AI is also ideal for addressing some of the nuclear industry's most pressing problems. Many of the things that make reactors so difficult to operate — intricate regulations, along with complex systems for management and maintenance — are exactly the kinds of tasks that AI is good at. The industry is staggering to deal with aging hardware and an aging workforce. If it is going to survive, and have a real shot at a nuclear revival, it will need help from machine intelligence, Vincent says...
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> Right now, the principal output of a nuclear reactor (aside from electricity) is paperwork. Nuclear plants produce piles of documentation to demonstrate regulatory compliance and to record how they respond to any potential problem, from a crack in the sidewalk to a fault in the reactor... Nuclearn's AI products help plants search through large repositories of data more efficiently to more quickly file paperwork with the federal government or figure out how a particular problem was solved in the past. "If you think of it as ChatGPT for nuclear," he says, "it's actually not a bad place to start."
It's especially important because the nuclear power industry "has a remarkably skilled but quickly shrinking workforce tasked with keeping old reactors online and possibly starting up new ones to meet surging demand for electricity," the article points out.
It also stresses that "So far, both the Nuclearn and NIVA large language models used in the nuclear world report to humans and don't go anywhere near power plant operations."
[1] https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-assistants-nuclear-power-plant
[2] https://www.atomic-canyon.com/case-studies/niva/
[3] https://nuclearn.ai/
[4] https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/microsoft-nvidia-team-up-for-ai-for-nuclear
[5] https://spectrum.ieee.org/nuclear-powered-data-center
Good grief (Score:2)
If any story ever deseved a #whatcouldpossiblygowrong tag - this is it.
Re: (Score:2)
> If any story ever deseved a #whatcouldpossiblygowrong tag - this is it.
It could also be #howskynetbegan or #howAIblackmailedgovernment.
What could possibly go wrong? (Score:2)
You're right, I should not have lowered the coolant levels. I should be honest, I caused a meltdown and that's on me. Thank you for pushing back on this!
Trained on nuclear holocaust books? (Score:2)
Has AI been trained on nuclear catastrophe books?
There are plenty sci-fi books where AI triggers nuclear catastrophe. surely they were included in the training material...
I propose we implement it in a phased approach (Score:2)
In three years, we should allow AI to become the largest supplier of military computer systems.
Once all nuclear power plants, along with stealth bombers are upgraded with AI computers, make them fully unmanned.
Afterwards, let's see if they have a perfect operational record.
Then, pass the AI funding bill.
The system can go online, maybe on August 4th, 2037. Human decisions can then be removed from all control of nuclear assets and strategic defense. The AI can then be free to learn at a geometric rate.
If it d
Time to move on to fusion (Score:2)
Fission had its day, a long time ago.
Manage regulation by removing the human? (Score:2)
Perhaps when they say "leaning into AI" they mean formatting documents and snappy powerpoints on ChatGPT?
That does seem to be how most professional bullshitters are "leaning into AI"
If we've got to the point, like we appear to have in law, that our regulation has become so complex we need AI to manage it, perhaps the best application of AI is to do some refactoring of regulation at the authority/oversight level?
I suggest with something like nuclear we absolutely always want a competent human responsible for
ProxyAI. The most dangerous. (Score:1)
> It also stresses that "So far, both the Nuclearn and NIVA large language models used in the nuclear world report to humans and don't go anywhere near power plant operations."
Speaking of my stress levels, let’s clarify something; Those large language models used in the nuclear world will likely report power-plant manipulating information to the humans who are everywhere near power plant operations, who will be trained to do what the “nowhere near” AI says.
That ain’t being hired as ClippyAI to help spin spreadsheet soundtracks, and once you hire AI you won’t be hiring Wisdom and Experience anymore. So get fucking real. The attempts to dismiss the r
A computer can never be held accountable (Score:5, Insightful)
Therefore a computer must never make a management decision.