March 2022
As part of our pledge to embrace innovation, we hosted an expert panel with Advanced Nuclear Skills and Innovation Campus (ANSIC) to discuss the opportunities for the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) in the nuclear industry.
The discussion focused on proportionate regulation of artificial intelligence in nuclear, where it is in the interest of society and beneficial to the industry’s safety and security. AI could be used in the nuclear industry to simulate behaviour of reactors, inform reactor design, performance, safety, and operation. So, having a clear regulatory approach is important.
The panel was made up of experts from the nuclear, medicine and healthcare, and fusion, national laboratories and academia. Despite the differences between sectors, we were reassured to see that we all face similar challenges. More than half of those who attended said their view on the regulation of AI had changed thanks to learning from the session.
The collaborative work will continue by taking a selection of examples of the application of AI into the regulatory sandbox. The regulatory sandbox allows us to work collaboratively with innovators to test and trial new approaches in a safe environment to develop a pragmatic and robust set of regulatory benchmarks.