NuScale Power to Collaborate with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to Explore Artificial Intelligence-Guided Nuclear Fuel Management
The collaboration will utilize an artificial intelligence-enabled nuclear design framework to strategically explore and optimize fuel management across multiple reactors at a single site
NuScale Power Corporation (NYSE:SMR) announced today that it will partner with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to utilize an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled nuclear design framework for a 12-NuScale Power Module™ (NPM) configuration to strategically explore how fuel could be even more efficiently and effectively managed across multiple reactors at a single site.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) initiative awarded funding to ORNL to collaborate with NuScale in this innovative research program. The GAIN initiative is housed within the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy. GAIN provides technical, regulatory, and financial support needed to advance nuclear technology towards commercialization. This is part of the first round of GAIN Vouchers awarded in fiscal year 2026.
Methods for optimizing the management of nuclear fuel for a single reactor are well-known. As part of this study, NuScale will partner with ORNL to use the power of AI to explore potential options for reducing fuel costs across multiple reactors. NuScale uses proven, off-the-shelf fuel assemblies, and unlike large reactors, NuScale's multi-module architecture offers a unique opportunity to enhance fuel efficiency in up to 12 reactors with a single shared fuel pool and a significant number of fuel options. By sharing fuel across modules, NuScale may find ways to improve overall plant fuel efficiencies beyond what can be normally achieved in a single reactor plant, ultimately reducing costs. ORNL will share their expertise in AI, machine learning, fuel management, and computational resources to help drive this important research.
"We are thrilled to be collaborating with ORNL, with the support of the DOE, to assess exciting new opportunities for potentially managing fuel even more efficiently across multiple nuclear reactors and further reducing costs going forward," said John Hopkins, NuScale President and Chief Executive Officer. "With the tremendous focus on growing energy consumption in the U.S. and around the world, NuScale is committed to bringing clean, reliable energy to our customers, and this strategic partnership with ORNL will use cutting-edge computational science to create even more energy efficient fuel management solutions for our multi-module plants."
About NuScale Power
Founded in 2007, NuScale Power Corporation (NYSE:SMR) is the industry-leading provider of proprietary and innovative advanced small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear technology, with a mission to help power the global energy transition by delivering safe, scalable, and reliable carbon-free energy. The Company's groundbreaking SMR technology is powered by the NuScale Power Module™, a small, safe, pressurized water reactor that can each generate 77 megawatts of electricity (MWe) or 250 megawatts thermal (gross), and can be scaled to meet customer needs through an array of flexible configurations up to 924 MWe (12 modules) of output.
As the first and only SMR to have its designs certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NuScale is well-positioned to serve diverse customers across the world by supplying nuclear energy for electrical generation, data centers, district heating, desalination, commercial-scale hydrogen production, and other process heat applications.
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