Microsoft, US national lab tap AI to speed up nuclear power permitting process

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters): Microsoft and a U.S. national laboratory on Wednesday said they are partnering to examine how artificial intelligence could be used to speed up the process of compiling the documents needed to secure permits for new nuclear power plants.

Microsoft and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) said they will tap Microsoft’s AI technology for generating engineering and safety analysis reports that are a standard part of the application process for construction permits and operating licenses for nuclear facilities in the United States. The AI systems, which have been trained on a huge trove of successful historical applications, will pull data from studies and compile it into complex applications that span hundreds of pages.

“It’s created for human refinement, so a human can go through each of the sections and, specifically as needed, edit any of the sections, whether manually, or maybe with the help of AI – it’s really up to the human,” Nelli Babayan, AI director for federal civilian business at Microsoft, told Reuters in an interview.

The move comes after President Donald Trump in May signed executive orders to fast-track the licensing process for new nuclear power plants, aiming to shorten what is often a multiyear process into as little as 18 months as AI data centers create soaring demand for energy.

The technology could also help with squeezing more energy out of existing nuclear plants, said Scott Ferrara, deputy division director for nuclear safety and regulatory research at INL. Existing nuclear facilities must submit an evaluation of how they might increase power output and apply for an amendment to their operating license.

“A plethora of data already exists from about 82 upgrades that have already taken place, and they can just pull right from that (data) and help generate their license amendment request,” Ferrara told Reuters in an interview.