Last September, in the Chicago suburb of Lemont, Ill., Argonne National Laboratory hosted its first AI STEM Education Summit. More than 180 educators from high schools, community colleges, and universities; STEM administrators; and experts in various disciplines convened at “One Ecosystem, Many Pathways–Building an AI-Ready STEM Workforce” to discuss how artificial intelligence is reshaping STEM-related industries, including the implications for the nuclear engineering classroom and workforce.

Ian Buck, Nvidia’s vice president of hyperscale and HPC computing (left), and Darío Gil, DOE Under Secretary for Science and Genesis Mission lead, at the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference. (Photo: Nvidia)

Department of Energy Under Secretary for Science and Genesis Mission lead Darío Gil participated in a session at the Nvidia GPU Technology Conference on March 17 that coincided with the announcement of the DOE’s $293 million Genesis Mission request for applications, which invites interdisciplinary teams to submit ideas for projects addressing over 20 of Genesis’s stated national challenges, several of which focus on accelerating nuclear research and nuclear energy output.

“We seek breakthrough ideas and novel collaborations leveraging the scientific prowess of our national laboratories, the private sector, universities, and science philanthropies,” said Gil.  

Idaho National Laboratory and computer chip maker Nvidia have announced a public-private partnership to advance nuclear energy deployment through artificial intelligence. According to INL, the collaboration aims to cut reactor development times in half and reduce operational costs by 50 percent by using AI to design, license, manufacture, construct, and operate reactors with human-in-the-loop workflows.

The Department of Energy’s newly published Genesis Mission National Science and Technology Challenges describes 26 challenges and corresponding AI solutions designed to advance the artificial intelligence–focused Genesis Mission, which was established by presidential executive order last November to develop an “integrated platform that connects the world’s supercomputers, experimental facilities, AI systems, and unique datasets across every major scientific domain to double the productivity and impact of American research and innovation within a decade.”

Senators Ben Ray Luján (D., N.M.) and Tim Scott (R., S.C.) have reintroduced legislation aimed at leveraging the best available science and technology at U.S. national laboratories to support the cleanup of legacy nuclear waste.

The Combining Laboratory Expertise to Accelerate Novel Solutions for Minimizing Accumulated Radioactive Toxins (CLEAN SMART) Act, introduced on February 11, would authorize up to $58 million annually to develop, demonstrate, and deploy innovative technologies, targeting reduced costs and safer, faster remediation of sites from the Manhattan Project and Cold War.

One of the executive orders issued by President Trump in November —“Launching the Genesis Mission”—focuses on a national effort to accelerate the use of AI in scientific research. The Genesis Mission EO preceded a reorganization of the Department of Energy and further tightens links between science and security under the administration’s quest for “global technology dominance in the development of artificial intelligence.”