California’s last remaining nuclear energy plant is using artificial intelligence to make its processes more efficient. So far, AI is only being used for document retrieval, but lawmakers and community watchdogs are worried about increasing automation in a sector associated with massive potential fallout in the case of nuclear meltdown.
The Diablo Canyon nuclear facility in San Luis Obispo on California’s central coast has been in decline for years, and is slated to begin decommissioning in 2029. But the plant is still critically important in California’s energy mix, providing nearly 9% of the state’s electricity and 17% of its zero-carbon energy. And last year, the nuclear power plant installed eight NVIDIA H100s, some of the most advanced graphical processors on Earth. This was the result of a deal between Pacific Gas & Electric, which runs the plant, and a local AI startup called Atomic Canyon. The idea is that the AI processors can help the plant navigate intensive documentation processes that can bog down nuclear power ventures.
“Federal and state regulations require utilities that operate nuclear power plants to manage billions of pages of technical documentation, which are spread across multiple systems,” read a press release from PG&E announcing the venture late last year. “Power plant personnel must spend both time and resources to retrieve this essential data accurately and reliably.” PG&E is hoping that its cutting edge approach, which has the potential to reduce document search times from hours to minutes, will revolutionize this process and improve nuclear power plant operations.
Maureen Zawalick, Vice President of Business and Technical Services at Diablo Canyon Power Plant, said in the press release, "As the first nuclear power plant to implement Neutron Enterprise using the NVIDIA platform, we're proud to lead the way in bringing cutting-edge innovation to our operations. Atomic Canyon's AI solutions will enable faster data retrieval, boosting collaboration and ensuring continued safe, but more efficient operations. Accessing critical information in seconds will let us focus on what truly matters—delivering reliable clean energy safely and affordably."
But lawmakers are very concerned about what the introduction of artificial intelligence into nuclear power production could mean for the future, and are pushing for more concrete guardrails. However, under the Trump administration, such parameters may not be forthcoming. Trump has already walked back a Biden-era ??executive order outlining goals for AI regulation, which the current administration sees as anti-innovation.
While there is little risk in the use of AI for document retrieval, there is concern about what comes next.
“The idea that you could just use generative AI for one specific kind of task at the nuclear power plant and then call it a day, I don’t really trust that it would stop there,” Tamara Kneese, the director of tech policy nonprofit Data & Society’s Climate, Technology, and Justice program, was recently quoted by Cal Matters. “And trusting PG&E to safely use generative AI in a nuclear setting is something that is deserving of more scrutiny.”
Nuclear energy and AI have become increasingly entangled as the runaway energy demand growth of data centers has threatened domestic energy security as well as Silicon Valley’s decarbonization goals. Tech bigwigs like Bill Gates and Sam Altman have increasingly touted nuclear energy as a carbon-free solution to meeting AI’s fast-growing energy demand, and have even envisioned a symbiotic relationship between nuclear and AI, wherein machine learning can help plan and design more efficient and cost-effective next-gen power plants.
The federal government has also pushed this angle. The U.S. Department of Energy recently identified 16 federal sites that ??are “uniquely positioned for rapid data center construction, including in-place energy infrastructure with the ability to fast-track permitting for new energy generation such as nuclear.”
By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com
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