From Insight to Impact
Steve Swilley is EPRI Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer.
It’s two o’clock in the morning during a scheduled maintenance outage. The schedule is tight, the clock is ticking, and a team of highly experienced professionals is reviewing component inspection data tied directly to the critical path. This is one example of applied artificial intelligence (AI) making a difference in nuclear operations, in this case providing confidence that the right call is being made, as efficiently as possible.
For an industry built on rigor, redundancy, and trust, the value of AI is not in flashy automation or replacing expert judgment. It is in helping skilled people do their work faster, with greater consistency, and with fewer surprises — especially in the systems and activities that most directly impact plant availability and performance.
What Good AI Looks Like in Nuclear Operations
In the nuclear sector, technology earns its place by meeting a high bar. The AI applications delivering value today share three traits. They are:
Human-in-the-loop design. AI flags, prioritizes, and summarizes, but final review and decision-making remain with qualified engineers, inspectors, and operators.
Traceable and testable. Performance can be evaluated. Results can be reviewed. Tools can be qualified and governed within existing nuclear processes.