For nuclear energy to fully realize its potential as a cornerstone of global decarbonization, it must overcome significant economic hurdles, particularly concerning operational costs. A critical pathway to achieving competitive pricing and widespread adoption lies in advanced automation and streamlined production. At the forefront of this transformative effort is Lauren Fortier, a second-year doctoral student in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE), who is diligently developing remote operation protocols for autonomous control of nuclear plants, a breakthrough poised to reshape the industry.
The global energy landscape is undergoing a profound shift, driven by an urgent need to mitigate climate change and ensure energy security. Nuclear power, with its capacity for continuous, carbon-free electricity generation, stands as a vital component in this transition. However, its expansion has historically been hampered by high upfront capital costs, lengthy construction timelines, and the substantial operational expenses associated with large, manually intensive facilities. Fortier’s research directly addresses these economic barriers, aiming to unlock a more agile and cost-effective future for nuclear energy, particularly for emerging technologies like small modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors.
A Foundation Forged in the South China Sea: From Naval Operations to Academic Pursuit
Fortier’s journey into the intricate world of nuclear operations began far from the academic halls of MIT, deep in the strategic waters of the South China Sea. After earning an undergraduate degree in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University, where she attended on an ROTC scholarship, Fortier embarked on a unique and formative experience as a naval nuclear operator. She supervised critical nuclear plant operations aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier, an environment where the absolute reliability of nuclear power was not merely an advantage, but a necessity.
"It was a unique experience that you don’t easily see anywhere else, especially the complete reliance on nuclear power," Fortier recounts, reflecting on her time at sea. "The only way you’re moving through the ocean is if you have that nuclear reactor working." This hands-on immersion provided an unparalleled understanding of operational intricacies and the profound responsibility inherent in managing nuclear systems. The U.S. Navy has, for over seven decades, successfully operated nuclear propulsion systems, accumulating millions of miles and reactor-years without incident, setting a benchmark for safety and reliability that continues to inform civilian nuclear power. This rigorous, real-world training instilled in Fortier a deep appreciation for the science underpinning plant operations, but also highlighted areas ripe for innovation. She observed that many plant procedures were exceptionally manual and labor-intensive, sparking an inquiry into how these processes could be made more efficient and less reliant on constant human intervention.
This critical insight — born from direct operational experience — became a pivotal motivator. Around the time she was contemplating these operational shortcomings, the Navy presented Fortier with an opportunity to pursue a master’s degree in an approved discipline. Recognizing the synergy between her operational insights and the potential for academic exploration, Fortier chose nuclear engineering at MIT. This strategic move represented a conscious shift from the "operations realm to the academic realm," driven by a desire to build upon her overwhelmingly positive experiences in nuclear technology and address the inefficiencies she had identified. The intense, disciplined training received during her naval service proved to be an invaluable asset, preparing her meticulously for the demanding academic rigor characteristic of MIT.
Laying the Groundwork: Supervisory Control Systems for Nuclear Plants
For her master’s degree, Fortier delved into the development of a supervisory control system specifically designed for nuclear plant operations. Her research utilized a sophisticated simulator characterized by a robust thermal-hydraulic response, allowing for realistic testing and validation of her concepts. The underlying assumption was that the lessons garnered from these detailed simulations would directly translate into practical, real-world applications, offering a pathway to enhanced efficiency and safety in actual nuclear facilities. This initial research, while significant, proved to be merely the prologue to a more expansive and ambitious undertaking. Fortier soon recognized that the true potential for transforming nuclear operations extended far beyond the scope of a master’s thesis.
The Dawn of Autonomous Nuclear Operations: A Vision for the Future Grid
The future viability of nuclear power is increasingly linked to the development and deployment of smaller, more flexible reactor designs, notably SMRs and microreactors. These advanced reactors are envisioned for distributed power generation, potentially serving rural communities, industrial complexes, or even remote military bases. Unlike the legacy gigawatt-scale plants, which operate continuously at 100 percent capacity and whose massive power output can justify the considerable costs of maintaining large, dedicated operational staffs, microreactors present a different economic calculus.
A key challenge for the widespread deployment of microreactors, especially in remote or distributed configurations, is the prohibitive cost of staffing each facility with a large bench of human operators. This is precisely where supervised and thoroughly vetted autonomous operations become not just beneficial, but essential. Fortier’s doctoral research directly confronts this challenge, posing a fundamental question: "How do we transition to autonomous operations in nuclear power plants?"
Her vision involves creating one integrated approach – a central supervisory control system – rather than a patchwork of interlinked, disparate components. The inherent complexity lies in modifying existing operational frameworks, which have historically been designed for human execution, to seamlessly incorporate machine intelligence. Fortier keenly observed that traditional, human-centric procedures often imposed a rigid structure, inadvertently limiting the optimal execution of tasks. "Because everything is human-centric, it doesn’t allow you to choose the best way to do a procedure," she notes. Her innovative approach seeks to redefine this dynamic, envisioning a collaborative paradigm where humans and computers "tag-team," leveraging the strengths of each, with strategic human intervention deployed only when absolutely necessary. This paradigm shift promises not only economic benefits but also potentially enhanced safety through consistent, optimized procedure execution.
A Collaborative Ecosystem: MIT, INL, and Industry Partnerships
The ambitious scope of achieving genuinely autonomous nuclear operations necessitated a robust, interdisciplinary approach, prompting Fortier’s natural progression to a doctorate after completing her master’s in 2025. Her research has been significantly bolstered by the powerful collaborative ecosystem fostered at MIT.
Her primary research advisor, Sacit Cetiner, holds a joint appointment with MIT’s Nuclear Reactor Laboratory and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), a leading center for nuclear energy research and development. This dual affiliation has been instrumental in facilitating invaluable partnerships. To tackle the complex challenge of designing an autonomous supervisory control system with an effective and intuitively adopted human-machine interface, Fortier collaborated with Katya Le Blanc, a senior human factors scientist at INL. This collaboration extended to the Human System Simulation Laboratory at INL, providing Fortier with critical insights into the nuances of designing cyber-physical systems that optimize human-machine interaction within highly complex and safety-critical environments.
"I’m very much an engineer and don’t have a lot of experience in human behavior, so the collaboration with INL was a huge benefit for me," Fortier explains. "I got better insights into many aspects, including what you want to see when a human has to take over for a machine when it’s no longer working." This understanding of human factors is paramount in nuclear operations, where seamless transitions and clear communication between automated systems and human operators are essential for maintaining safety and operational integrity.
Beyond her academic and national laboratory collaborations, Fortier also engaged with industry leaders. She completed a summer internship in 2025 with Westinghouse, a preeminent design organization and vendor for both current and next-generation nuclear power plants. This invaluable experience allowed her to rigorously test and refine her ideas concerning autonomous operations solutions within a real-world industrial context, gaining practical feedback and validation for her theoretical frameworks.
At MIT, Fortier benefits from the expertise of her co-advisors. She has gained a profound understanding of control theory from Anuradha Annaswamy, a distinguished founder and director of the Active-Adaptive Control Laboratory in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. "She’s a control systems expert, which really benefits me because while I can explain what to do with a nuclear power plant, she can help me understand better how to go about operations from a control systems perspective," Fortier states. Annaswamy provides crucial guidance on the supervisory control system framework and its execution, complementing Fortier’s deep knowledge of nuclear processes with advanced control engineering principles. Fortier has also been taking specialized classes to further solidify her foundation in control systems. Additionally, Curtis Smith, the former director for INL’s Nuclear Safety and Regulatory Research Division and now KEPCO Professor of the Practice of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT NSE, serves as Fortier’s other co-advisor, bringing invaluable experience in nuclear safety and regulatory research to her doctoral work.
Building Trust Through Transparency: The Gradual Path to Autonomy
A core tenet of Fortier’s design philosophy is the implementation of a gradual and systematic progression toward autonomy, specifically aimed at fostering user trust and regulatory acceptance. She emphasizes that the operations systems she is developing are not designed for abrupt, full-scale automation, but rather for a step-by-step introduction that builds confidence. "When we introduce an automated procedure that walks you step by step through what you would be doing anyway, it is reassuring and builds trust," Fortier points out. Her doctoral work is centered on objective-oriented operations, where the control system intelligently generates the necessary sequence of events to achieve a specific objective, rather than merely adhering to a rigid, predetermined operating procedure. This adaptive capability allows for greater flexibility and efficiency in dynamic plant conditions.
Crucially, Fortier’s approach to automation is founded on a process known as finite state automata (FSA), a method she extensively studied during an internship at INL in summer 2024. Unlike artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning algorithms, which can sometimes operate as "black boxes," FSA offers unparalleled transparency in its execution. FSA is a discrete event system, meaning every action within the automation framework is explicitly event-driven: "if this happens, then do that." This deterministic nature allows the system to adjust precisely to current plant conditions and transition between various operational states or events with absolute clarity. It represents a sophisticated solution to a complex problem through conventional automation, deliberately eschewing AI-driven automation for now. "We’re not using a data-driven statistical approach like machine learning because we do not yet have the tools to validate the operation of such systems in the nuclear context," Fortier clarifies, highlighting the paramount importance of verifiability and validation in nuclear safety. The nuclear industry operates under some of the most stringent safety regulations globally, and any introduction of automation must meet incredibly high bars for predictability and explainability.
Far-Reaching Impact and Future Prospects
The potential impact of Fortier’s pioneering work on developing automation for nuclear plants has already garnered significant recognition. In 2025, she was among the esteemed winners of the Innovations in Nuclear Energy Research and Development Student Competition, sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy University Program. Further reinforcing the significance of her contributions, Fortier has been named a 2026–2027 MathWorks Engineering Fellow, an honor that will provide continued support for advancing her crucial research.
The successful implementation of her nuclear plant automation program on next-generation equipment is expected to provide the necessary impetus for the accelerated development and commercial deployment of microreactors. These compact, often factory-fabricated reactors promise to decentralize power generation, enhance grid resilience, and provide reliable, clean energy to remote or underserved regions. By significantly reducing operational costs and staffing requirements through automation, Fortier’s work directly contributes to making microreactors economically viable and scalable.
The immediate next steps involve scaling her supervisory control system, leveraging insights gained from the detailed work on smaller aspects of control. Fortier expresses profound excitement about the journey ahead and the vast possibilities that her research unlocks. "The collaborations with other people, and the relationships we have established with stakeholders, have really helped make an impact and supported the relevancy of the work," she affirms. "Sometimes when you’re stuck in your own bubble, that outside perspective is really useful."
Her research has broader implications for the future energy landscape. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), nuclear power currently provides approximately 10% of the world’s electricity and roughly one-third of the world’s low-carbon electricity. However, the path to net-zero emissions by 2050, as outlined by bodies like the IPCC, necessitates a significant increase in carbon-free energy sources, including nuclear. Automation, by driving down costs and enabling faster, safer deployment of advanced reactors, directly supports these ambitious climate goals. Estimates suggest that advanced automation could reduce operations and maintenance costs for nuclear plants by 10-20%, making them far more competitive with other energy sources. Furthermore, by standardizing procedures and reducing the potential for human error, supervised autonomy can enhance the already robust safety profile of nuclear facilities.
As the world continues its urgent transition to cleaner energy sources, Lauren Fortier’s innovative research at MIT represents a crucial stride. By methodically addressing the economic and operational challenges through intelligent, transparent automation, she is not only paving the way for the next generation of nuclear power but is also ensuring its sustainable and essential role in a decarbonized future. Her work exemplifies how cutting-edge engineering, combined with strategic collaboration and a deep understanding of operational realities, can unlock transformative solutions for some of humanity’s most pressing challenges.
