Google Cloud and Westinghouse Electric Company are partnering to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up nuclear reactor construction.
Building Nuclear Reactors Faster With AI
The collaboration brings together Westinghouse’s proprietary HiVE™ and bertha™ nuclear AI solutions with Google Cloud technologies such as Vertex AI, Gemini, and BigQuery.
Vertex AI is Google’s platform for building machine learning models, Gemini is its most advanced AI model, and BigQuery is a serverless data warehouse. HiVE is a nuclear-specific generative AI system, and Bertha is a large language model customized for reactor lifecycle tasks such as inspections, maintenance planning, and digital workflows.
According to Interesting Engineering, these AI-powered tools autonomously generate and optimize modular work packages for nuclear reactors. Combined, these tools are able to support generative AI applications, analyze large volumes of data, and automate engineering workflows.
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The companies stated that this method will both speed up the implementation of Westinghouse’s AP1000® modular reactors and make operations in existing nuclear power plants more efficient using data-driven insights.
“As the only fully licensed, construction-ready modular reactor available today, our AP1000 technology is the quickest way to add new sources of affordable and abundant nuclear energy to the U.S. grid,” said Dan Sumner, Westinghouse Interim Chief Executive Officer.
“By partnering with Google Cloud to enhance our HiVE and bertha technology, and backed by 75 years of our proprietary nuclear data, we can accelerate the deployment of new AP1000 units while implementing powerful AI technologies that will optimize the construction and operations of nuclear power plants.”
The companies have completed a successful proof of concept, which demonstrated the autonomous generation and optimization of construction work packages.
“This partnership with Westinghouse combines Google Cloud’s AI technologies and expertise with Westinghouse’s century-long expertise in nuclear innovation to chart a new path towards a smarter and safer future,” said Kyle Jessen, Managing Director, Commercial Industries, Google Cloud.
“Artificial intelligence is not merely a tool; it can give companies a critical competitive advantage. Westinghouse is demonstrating what’s possible.”
