The Energizer – Volume 90

A multidisciplinary team from the Idaho and Argonne National Laboratories, Kairos Power, and Curtiss-Wright, along with support from academics, have developed digital twin nuclear reactors. By using a US$5.2 million grant from the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, the scientists and engineers have engaged a physics-based machine learning process to construct and later maintain the digital twin reactors. By grounding the machine learning algorithm in actual physics, the artificial intelligence model generates predictions that are more robust and reliable when compared to more abstract models. The complex nature of this approach provides two layers of problem-solving simultaneously. First, a machine learning-driven predictive maintenance system actively avoids unexpected outages while optimizing maintenance, and predicts mechanical failure before prototypical mechanical stress indicates as much.