Frontier supercomputer powers first nuclear-specific AI for reactors

The article discusses the development of the first nuclear-specific artificial intelligence (AI) models powered by the Frontier supercomputer, the world’s second-fastest and first exascale machine, located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Developed by tech startup Atomic Canyon, the Neutron platform leverages Frontier’s immense computational power to train AI capable of accurately searching and interpreting complex nuclear industry documents, including regulations, maintenance logs, and engineering records. This innovation aims to drastically reduce the time, labor, and resources traditionally spent on navigating vast nuclear documentation, which can consume tens of thousands of staff hours annually at plants like California’s Diablo Canyon. The initiative originated from the challenges faced by Diablo Canyon, California’s only operational nuclear plant, which had to extend its license to 2030 and manage a massive regulatory application under tight deadlines. Existing commercial AI tools lacked the precision needed to handle nuclear-specific jargon and abbreviations, prompting Atomic Canyon to build a dedicated AI model from scratch. Using 20,000 GPU hours on Frontier