Applying the Computational Intelligence Paradigm to Nuclear Power Plant Operation: A Review (1990-2015)

In the guise of artificial neural networks (ANNs), genetic/evolutionary computation algorithms (GAs/ECAs), fuzzy logic (FL) inference systems (FLIS) and their variants as well as combinations, the computational intelligence (CI) paradigm has been applied to nuclear energy (NE) since the late 1980s as a set of efficient and accurate, non-parametric, robust-to-noise as well as to-missing-information, non-invasive on-line tools for monitoring, predicting and overall controlling nuclear (power) plant (N(P)P) operation. Since then, the resulting CI-based implementations have afforded increasingly reliable as well as robust performance, demonstrating their potential as either stand-alone tools, or - whenever more advantageous - combined with each other as well as with traditional signal processing techniques. The present review is focused upon the application of CI methodologies to the - generally acknowledged as - key-issues of N(P)P operation, namely: control, diagnostics and fault detection, monitoring, N(P)P operations, proliferation and resistance applications, sensor and component reliability, spectroscopy, fusion supporting operations, as these have been reported in the relevant primary literature for the period 1990-2015. At one end, 1990 constitutes the beginning of the actual implementation of innovative, and – at the same time – robust as well as practical, directly implementable in H/W, CI-based solutions/tools which have proved to be significantly superior to the traditional as well as the artificial-intelligence-(AI)derived methodologies in terms of operation efficiency as well as robustness-to-noise and/or otherwise distorted/missing information. At the other end, 2015 marks a paradigm shift in terms of the emergent (and, swiftly, ubiquitous) use of deep neural networks (DNNs) over existing ANN architectures and FL problem representations, thus dovetailing the increasing requirements of the era of complex - as well as Big - Data and forever changing the means of ANN/neuro-fuzzy construction and application/performance. By exposing the prevalent CI-based tools for each key-issue of N(P)P operation, overall as well as over time for the given 1990-2015 period, the applicability and optimal use of CI tools to NE problems is revealed, thus providing the necessary know-how concerning crucial decisions that need to be made for the increasingly efficient as well as safe exploitation of NE.