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The current fleet of nuclear reactors are based in huge imposing facilities generally located in isolated locations away from population centers. This need not be the case. In the near future nuclear reactors will be regarded as portable, modular sources of safe and clean energy. Rather than being located in remote facilities hundreds of miles from cities, they will be in convenient locations near where the demand for power is the greatest. This prediction poses a couple of difficult questions: How do we get to this future and why have we not already delivered these types of facilities? Although there are many possible answers to these questions, we believe that an overreliance on old simulation tools is one of the biggest contributors to maintaining the status quo in the nuclear power industry. Digital twin technology is the only way of changing that status quo and delivering reliable and affordable nuclear energy.
In this white paper, we give examples of how digital twin technology is being used to support the growth and adoption of nuclear power. We explore the specific challenges the nuclear industry is facing and how the nuclear engineering community is increasingly addressing these challenges using virtual reactor models and a comprehensive digital twin.
