NE Seminar: “Bridging Gaps: Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Applications to Accelerate Advanced Reactor Deployment”

Details

Abstract

The high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) is a type of advanced nuclear reactor that can provide outstanding safety characteristics, flexible operation, and versatility in energy applications. The pebble-bed variant of the HTGR is expected to enhance the economic competitiveness of the reactor due to its capability for online refueling of the pebble fuel elements and load following. However, the uninterrupted operation of this system is contested by engineering challenges, such as real-time fuel burnup measurement and system-wide component degradation. These challenges are well met by emerging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques.

This seminar will present two case studies, showcasing how advanced modeling and simulation capabilities can be enhanced by AI/ML to address the gaps in HTGR system design, operation, and maintenance and, therefore, accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear technology.

The first study focuses on prototyping online assay of irradiated pebble fuel elements using data-driven analysis of gamma spectroscopic signatures. The second one shows the development of a Dynamic Operation and Maintenance Optimization framework, focusing on its capabilities on performing system-level predictive maintenance leveraging limited sensory data.

Bio

Jason Hou, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
North Carolina State University

Dr. Jason Hou is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at North Carolina State University. The mission of his research and teaching is to promote nuclear energy primarily by advancing the scientific understanding of advanced nuclear reactor technologies. There are four main research areas in his group: computational reactor physics, multiphysics modeling and simulation capabilities, advanced reactor design and fuel cycle analysis, and machine learning for reactor operation and maintenance.

Hou received his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from Pennsylvania State University and was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, before joining the NC State faculty