Three Tickle College of Engineering-led projects have received funding through the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy to help the nation stay on the competitive edge of advanced nuclear technology research and development.
The awards, which totaled $58.2 million for 46 projects across the US, are funded through DOE’s Nuclear Energy University Program and the Nuclear Science User Facilities Program.
Professor Anahita Khojandi, the Heath Endowed Faculty Fellow in Business & Engineering in the Department of Industrial Systems and Engineering, is collaborating on a project with Professor Jamie Coble, the associate department head and Southern Company Faculty Fellow in the Department of Nuclear Engineering (NE).
The goal of the proposed work is to develop O&Mgpt, a context-aware artificial intelligence (AI)-natural language processing (NLP) approach-powered decision support tool, to assist human experts in the time-consuming task of prioritizing work orders in nuclear power plants to improve the efficiency of operations and maintenance (O&M) planning.
“I see this project as a meaningful and timely step toward integrating AI into operations and maintenance in nuclear power plants, improving efficiency, reducing costs, and reinforcing nuclear energy’s role as a reliable low-carbon source,” Khojandi said. “It also offers valuable insights into how AI can be developed to augment experts’ performance across other complex domains.”
NE Associate Professor Khalid Hattar is leading a project titled, “Repair of In-service Components will Enhance the Cost Competitiveness of LWRs Testing.”
The project is aiming to improve the economic competitiveness of the light water reactor (LWR) fleet compared to other energy sectors by using modern technology to develop tools and approaches to repair and heal reactor components while in service. Hattar’s group wants to extend the lifetime of LWR components using laser-based heat treatments of reactor core components.
NE Professor Maik Lang and NE Research Assistant Professor Eric O’Quinn are leading a project titled, “Advancing Neutron Scattering Techniques for the Development of Atomic-Scale Modeling Nuclear Materials.”
The project seeks to provide critical insights into the behavior of nuclear materials under extreme conditions and the performance of nuclear fuels during prolonged operation. The findings of the study will aid in refining computational models that predict material performance, ultimately driving innovation and sustainability within the nuclear fuel cycle.
Contact
Rhiannon Potkey (rpotkey@utk.edu)