Nuclear power plants with artificial intelligence in industry 4.0 era: Top-level design and current applications—a systemic review

Abstract

Nuclear energy can make an important contribution to low-carbon energy supply for Industry 4.0, while Industry 4.0 can reform this industry in return. As a typical and complex man-machine-network integration system, various faults, insufficient automation and stressed human operators limit the further popularization of nuclear power plants (NPPs) while these issues can be addressed by the aid of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. In this work, we try to present a systemic review of how AI can benefit NPPs in a top-to-down fashion. We discuss limitations in current NPPs and introduce the concept of Nuclear Power Plant Human-Cyber-Physical System (NPPHCPS) as the top-level design. Then, we category AI-related nuclear power applications into Physical-Plant-Centered and Human-Operator-Centered technologies and review research works from 7 typical NPP functional scenarios in the recent two decades. In each NPP functional scenario, how researchers integrate AI into NPPs is presented following timeline. We hope this review can be used as the guideline for NPPs’ Design in the future and contribute to green Industry 4.0.