US nuclear plants adopt AI assistants for paperwork, not control Other

Most US nuclear reactors now use AI assistants for paperwork and search, not for running the plant. IEEE Spectrum reports that nearly all 94 US reactors have been offered AI tools, and most have taken them up.

IEEE Spectrum published the report on October 8, 2026. The two main suppliers are the startups Atomic Canyon and Nuclearn.

What the tools do

• Search documents. Engineers ask plain-language questions over technical documents, regulatory guidance and operating experience reports.
• Learn from past incidents. The tools pull together incident reports from the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) and show their sources.
• Help with maintenance. Troubleshooting, maintenance guidance, regulatory forms and ordering tools and materials.

Who makes them

Why plants want it

• Fewer experienced people. The industry faces an aging workforce and lost know-how, and staff are "spread really thin".
• Heavy checking. "Every engineering decision has to be evaluated, independently verified, and checked," says Jerrold Vincent of Nuclearn.
• Rising demand for power from data centers and new reactor projects.

Kept away from the controls

• Neither NIVA nor Nuclearn's tools are used for plant operations. They answer to engineers.
• Nuclearn offers single-site setups, so a plant's data never leaves the site.
• NIVA searches only databases that already require plant security clearance, so the same access rules apply.

You don't want machines making decisions that could impact the operations.

Trey Lauderdale of Atomic Canyon expects humans to stay "in the loop for a very, very long time".

Sources

• IEEE Spectrum: The U.S. Nuclear Plant Fleet Is Leaning Into AI
• World Nuclear News: Atomic Canyon launches virtual assistant for US nuclear fleet