The New Nuclear Era: Robotics, AI, and Cybersecurity in Advanced Reactors

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• Dr Fan Zhang Georgia Institute of Technology
• Friday 21 March 2025, 11:00-12:30
• CUED, LR3.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Helene Jones.

As nuclear energy expands its capacity and operational scope to meet evolving energy needs and combat climate change, reducing operation and maintenance costs is crucial. While robots have been used in the past for cost reduction in applications such as surveys, their potential in nuclear power plant operations remains under-explored. Robotics, together with AI/ML, can enhance advanced online monitoring and diagnosis systems, thereby improving operational efficiency and reactor economics. This integration increases sensing capabilities, reduces human labor, and decreased human exposure to hazardous conditions. A 3D Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) digital twin has been developed to advance these capabilities. With digitalization and advanced ML/AI application, cybersecurity has become a pressing challenge. A comprehensive cyber-attack detection platform has been developed using both network and process data, employing supervised and unsupervised learnings. By combining IT and operational technology (OT) information, this platform provides high situational awareness.

Bio: Dr. Fan Zhang is an Assistant Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She received her Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering and a concurrent M.S. degree in Statistics from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2019. Dr. Zhang directs the Intelligence for Advance Nuclear (iFAN) lab in developing research which uses AI/ML to enhance cybersecurity and optimize nuclear power plant operations, such as digital twins, predictive maintenance, autonomous controls, and robotics. She has been actively involved in IAEA nuclear cybersecurity research and education. Dr. Zhang is the recipient of the 2021 Ted Quinn Early Career Award from the American Nuclear Society for her contributions in the fields of instrumentation & control and cybersecurity. In 2022, she was awarded the inaugural Distinguished Early Career Award from the U.S. DOE Office of Nuclear Energy. She has also been selected to the Class of 2023 Volunteer 40 Under 40 for her professional achievements and broad research impact. In 2023, Dr. Zhang was invited by National Academy of Engineering (NAE) to as a participant to the EU-US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium as one of highly accomplished early-career engineers. Dr. Zhang is a Georgia Tech College of Engineering Cybersecurity Fellow.

This talk is part of the Engineering Department Nuclear Energy Seminars series.

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• CUED, LR3
• Cambridge Energy Seminars
• NanoDTC Energy Materials Talks
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