To unlock the potential of nuclear energy as a clean power source, it needs to be cost-effective and efficient. Second-year doctoral student Lauren Fortier in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) at MIT is bearing the torch in this pursuit. She’s working on creating ways for nuclear plants to be operated remotely and autonomously.
Fortier’s voyage into the world of nuclear power had a unique beginning earning her undergraduate degree in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University, made possible by an ROTC scholarship. Her remarkable stint as a supervisor for nuclear plant operations aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier navigating the South China Sea exposed her to the unremitting dependence on nuclear power.
“You gain a sense of the extreme dependency on nuclear power that’s hard to come by elsewhere. The only way that ship is crossing the ocean is with a functional nuclear reactor,” she reminisces.
After her naval experience, Fortier developed an enthusiasm for the operational side of nuclear plants. She noticed several process inefficiencies which sparked her interest for automation possibilities within these operations. When offered to pursue a master’s degree by the Navy, she opted for nuclear engineering at MIT, a choice influenced by her positive experiences in the field.
For her master’s degree, Fortier worked on a supervisory control system for nuclear plant operations, employing a simulator with robust thermal hydraulic response. This work led her to believe that the takeaways from these simulations could translate into practical improvements.
For Fortier, the mission to develop autonomous operations in nuclear plants is driven by recognition of their essential role, particularly in smaller, rural plants. Conventional plants are heavy on manual labor, but this isn’t feasible for microreactors located in remote areas. This is where the need for supervised autonomous operations becomes essential.
Fortier’s goal is to transition nuclear power plants to autonomous operations. She envisions an integrated supervisory control system that can accommodate both human and machine operations. Her ambition isn’t to fully eliminate human interaction, but rather, to streamline operations by allowing strategic human intervention only when necessary.
While pursuing her doctorate, Fortier realized the immense value of collaboration at MIT. As she delved deeper into research on autonomous operations, her research advisor, Sacit Cetiner, facilitated a collaboration with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Working with people like Katya Le Blanc, a senior human factors scientist at INL, Fortier gained valuable insights into designing effective human-machine interfaces.
During a summer internship with Westinghouse in 2025, Fortier got the chance to test her autonomous operations ideas, armed with knowledge from mentors like Anuradha Annaswamy, an expert in control systems, and Curtis Smith, a former director at INL and now a professor at MIT NSE.
Fortier is firm in her approach to introducing autonomy in a careful, gradual way to establish user trust. Unlike AI, her automation is based on finite state automata that is transparent in execution. This approach adjusts for current plant conditions and transitions between states clearly, solving complex problems through conventional automation.
Given the promise and potential impact of Fortier’s work on nuclear plant automation, it’s little surprise that she was one of the winners of the 2025 Innovations in Nuclear Energy Research and Development Student Competition. Her work is anticipated to significantly influence the development and deployment of commercial microreactors.
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For a more detailed look at Lauren Fortier’s groundbreaking work at MIT, check out this oryginalny artykuł prasowy.
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