Google and Westinghouse use AI to automate nuclear construction

Westinghouse Electric Company and Google Cloud have partnered to accelerate nuclear reactor construction by integrating AI technologies. Westinghouse’s proprietary AI platforms, HiVE and bertha, are combined with Google Cloud’s Vertex AI, Gemini, and BigQuery to autonomously generate and optimize modular work packages for advanced reactors, particularly the AP1000® modular reactors. This collaboration leverages extensive nuclear industry data and cutting-edge generative AI to streamline complex engineering workflows, aiming to reduce the traditionally labor-intensive construction process and enhance operational efficiency across existing nuclear plants. HiVE, introduced in 2024, is a nuclear-specific generative AI system built on over 70 years of proprietary data, while bertha, a large language model named after Westinghouse’s first female engineer, focuses on reactor lifecycle tasks such as maintenance and inspections. The partnership has already demonstrated success through a proof of concept using Westinghouse’s WNEXUS digital plant design platform, showing the potential for AI to transform nuclear construction into a