Accelerating nuclear engineering research with AI
Accelerating nuclear engineering research with AI
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1115353
Publish Date: 2026-02-04 15:56:00
Source Domain: www.eurekalert.org
Nuclear power has been proposed as a solution to meet the growing energy needs of artificial intelligence. But what if AI could return the favor and help propel the development and deployment of nuclear energy?
Nuclear engineering Ph.D. student Zavier Ndum Ndum researches the use of large-language models (LLMs), a form of AI used in chatbots like ChatGPT, to assist in nuclear engineering and research. Ndum is building a suite of tools to combine the ability to quickly gather knowledge and conduct simulations all in one package. One of those tools, called frameworks, is RADIANT-LLM.
There is a lot of knowledge circulating about nuclear engineering and physics stored in technical databases and PDFs from various internet sources. Searching for these files manually can take time, but RADIANT-LLM streamlines this process by rapidly pulling information from the relevant documents. The program can also sort through outdated documents to use the most updated versions. These frameworks are lightweight enough to be used on a local computer.
RADIANT-LLM could be described as ChatGPT for nuclear engineers, but that similarity only goes so far, according to Ndum. His framework uses a strategy known as LLM augmentation, which goes beyond just asking a chatbot a question. Furthermore, a publicly used AI agent can’t securely handle uploaded private or proprietary documents that might be necessary for nuclear facilities and must be kept secure. Instead, Ndum’s frameworks can pull from files stored locally on a computer without risking private data leaving that secure environment. RADIANT-LLM also lets users build their own personalized local knowledge bases that can be updated by pulling new reputable information from controlled online sources.
Using Ndum’s LLM frameworks is also more reliable than using commercial AI chatbots like ChatGPT. Such LLM applications are prone to “hallucinations,” when the program…
