A digital twin of Purdue’s reactor appears on monitors in Stylianos Chatzidakis’s lab. Chatzidakis observes PhD student Zach Dahm, seated, as he toggles through different views. (Purdue University photo/John Underwood)
A research reactor built in 1962 that was converted to digital control and operation in 2019 is aiding the development of advanced nuclear reactors, such as small modular reactors and microreactors. An article published by Purdue University describes how Purdue University Reactor Number One (PUR-1), currently the only facility to be licensed for a fully digital safety and control system by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, is being used to perform “first-of-a-kind experiments that are unique to the nuclear sector.”
Digital benefits: Digital control and operation allows advanced reactors to be operated remotely, which would align with the planned remote locations of some SMRs and microreactors. Digital operation also allows for artificial intelligence monitoring and real-time measurements of reactor performance.
Digital twin: A Purdue team lead by Stylianos Chatzidakis, associate reactor director and director of the Nuclear Engineering Radiation Laboratory at Purdue, built a digital twin of PUR-1 that “is a fully integrated physics and data-driven simulation that receives measurements in real time from PUR-1’s sensors, makes predictions using AI-driven algorithms, and provides insights that can inform reactor operations,” according to the article. Chatzidakis and his students access the twin on computers in a lab adjacent to the reactor facility, making it possible for the team to explore how a similar framework might work in the future to monitor and operate advanced reactors from remote locations.
Cybersecurity: PUR-1 and its digital twin also are being used to advance cybersecurity . Last June, the NRC published a report by Chatzidakis and other PUR-1 researchers that describes how real-time data from nuclear reactors can be used with AI and machine learning models to distinguish abnormal from normal cybersecurity states within nuclear systems. According to Chatzidakis, the report is a valuable reference for the development of ML for nuclear cybersecurity.
Quantum encryption: One specific area of cybersecurity research with PUR-1 is quantum encryption, which takes advantage of the physical properties of quantum bits to secure data. “Encryption based on quantum principles cannot be broken with any computer,” Chatzidakis said. “It doesn’t matter if you have a supercomputer or a quantum computer—it’s unbreakable.”
Chatzidakis and his team employed PUR-1 data to simulate how quantum encryption can be used in the secure remote monitoring and operation of advanced reactors. Their findings were published online in July 2024 and in this month’s issue of Nuclear Technology, an American Nuclear Society journal (vol. 211, no. 5).
