Argonne National Laboratory

Prometheus

Creating an automated process to enable rapid design and licensing of advanced nuclear technologies using AI.

The United States aims to add about 300 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2050. The main challenge of reaching this goal is how nuclear projects are planned, approved, built, and run. Nuclear projects are often slow and hard to manage. Teams may work in separate systems. Key engineering knowledge is also stored in static disconnected formats that prevent institutional learning across projects. As a result, teams often repeat past work with new reactor design essentially starting from scratch.

Prometheus will address this problem with an artificial intelligence (AI) platform built for large-scale use. The platform will use AI agents for autonomous reasoning, decision-making, and act across interconnected workflows. The agents will support work across the full project life cycle:

  • Engineering agents will share design changes across disciplines. 
  • Licensing agents will use past regulatory decisions to help review new designs in real time.
  • Monitoring agents will track construction and manufacturing. 
  • Operations agents will manage routine plant tasks and alert human operators when a complex decision is needed.

Together, these tools will turn nuclear engineering knowledge into a shared, updated resource. Each new project will add to that knowledge and help improve the next one.

 

The project team has already reached several milestones:

  • Created the first digital twin of an operating nuclear reactor; 
  • Showed that AI could control a simulated small reactor;
  • Reduced engineering analysis from days to hours;
  • Produced AI-designed hardware that was installed in an active test reactor.

With $60 million in federal support and more than $200 million in industry commitments, Prometheus aims to:

  • Cut design and licensing timelines by 10 times;
  • Cut manufacturing time by 3 times;
  • Reduce operating staff needs and overall deployment timelines by 50%.

By improving how nuclear projects are delivered, Prometheus directly advances U.S. energy security and energy goals while strengthening national security through faster, more resilient domestic nuclear capacity.