(IDAHO FALLS, Idaho) — The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) will collaborate to use AWS’s advanced capabilities and cloud infrastructure to develop artificial intelligence (AI) tools for nuclear energy projects.
INL leads the nation in adapting AI for the nuclear energy industry. The laboratory is developing a suite of technologies that use AI to reduce the costs and timeframes of designing, licensing, building and operating nuclear facilities. Ultimately, the tools could be used for safe and reliable autonomous operation of nuclear reactors and accelerating deployment of new advanced reactors.
AWS’s advanced computing power and AI foundation models through Amazon Bedrock will help INL further develop these capabilities.
“Our collaboration with Amazon Web Services marks a significant leap forward in integrating advanced AI technologies into our nuclear energy research and development initiatives,” said INL Director John Wagner. “This collaboration underscores the critical role of linking the nation’s nuclear energy laboratory with AWS. By leveraging AWS’s cutting-edge cloud computing and AI solutions, we can accelerate nuclear energy deployment for America.”
The agreement with AWS fits with a larger INL strategy to create an ecosystem where Department of Energy laboratories, AI technology companies and nuclear energy developers can collaborate.
By providing INL access to its cloud computing and AI capabilities, AWS is enabling “nuclear energy AI at scale,” said Chris Ritter, division director of Scientific Computing and AI at INL.
“Through this collaboration with AWS, we have access to AI models, GPUs (graphical processing units) and specialized cloud services, including Amazon’s Bedrock service, which will enable INL researchers to use many leading foundation models to build nuclear energy applications,” Ritter said. “Amazon offers customized chips such as Inferentia and Trainium, specialized tools such as Amazon SageMaker, and solution architects to partner our laboratory with the commercial AI industry.”
The collaboration will accelerate the deployment of nuclear energy technologies to power data centers of the future. Advanced reactors with growing levels of autonomy — developed through Laboratory Directed Research and Development funding — could be part of the solution.
“AWS’s powerful AI and computing technology will support Idaho National Laboratory’s development of autonomous nuclear reactors to pioneer a future where civilian nuclear operations are safer, smarter and more responsive,” said David Appel, vice president of U.S. Federal and Global National Security and Defense for AWS. “We’re proud to collaborate with the Department of Energy and Idaho National Laboratory to accelerate safe advanced nuclear energy that will strengthen America’s energy leadership and our technological edge.”
INL will use AWS Compute and AI tools to develop a digital twin of a small modular reactor — nuclear reactors that range in size from 20 to 300 megawatts of electricity. Digital twins are virtual models of real-life assets such as nuclear reactors. A digital twin of a small modular reactor could use near real-time data from the physical reactor to enable advanced modeling and simulation, which is an important step toward using AI for autonomous operation.
“INL is committed to accelerating nuclear energy deployment, advancing autonomous nuclear operations and leading nuclear energy science through transformational AI technology — achieved with AWS and the nuclear energy industry,” Ritter said.
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