Diablo Canyon, California’s last operating nuclear power plant, is making history as the first in the US to deploy generative AI on-site — even as it moves toward decommissioning by the decade’s end.
The plant’s owner, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), announced a deal with AI startup Atomic Canyon to deploy its Neutron Enterprise tool, marking a pioneering step in the industry.
Designed for document retrieval efficiency
Built and running on NVIDIA’s full-stack AI platform, Neutron Enterprise is being deployed at Diablo Canyon to improve operational efficiency in document search and retrieval. The goal is to help the plant’s workers navigate millions of pages of technical reports and regulations from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that go back decades — while the plant remains in operation.
Neutron Enterprise will integrate with Diablo Canyon’s systems, using the latest optical character recognition (OCR), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and AI-powered search technology designed to reduce search times from hours to seconds, according to PG&E. Teams will be able to access critical information faster and more reliably, allowing them to focus on more mission-critical tasks and decision-making, the utility said.
Maureen Zalawick, the utility’s vice president of business and technical services, told CalMatters that the document retrieval tool is being deployed in stages, with PG&E forecasting a “full deployment” at Diablo Canyon by the third quarter of this year. She referred to Neutron Enterprise as a data-mining “copilot” rather than a “decision-maker” meant to help employees.
“We probably spend about 15,000 hours a year searching through our multiple databases and records and procedures,” Zalawick told the publication. “And that’s going to shrink that time way down.”
Will this expand the use of AI in nuclear power facilities?
Some observers have expressed concern that using Neutron Enterprise at Diablo Canyon may expand its use at nuclear facilities nationwide.
“The idea that you could just use generative AI for one specific kind of task at the nuclear power plant and then call it a day, I don’t really trust that it would stop there,” warned Tamara Kneese of the tech watchdog Data & Society, according to CalMatters.
Kneese, who heads the group’s climate, technology, and justice program, said she believes that using AI to help sift through reams of documents is worthwhile. But “trusting PG&E to safely use generative AI in a nuclear setting is something that is deserving of more scrutiny,” she added.
According to PG&E, Diablo Canyon is California’s only remaining nuclear power plant, providing nearly 9% of the state’s electricity and generating 17% of its zero-carbon energy.