We Want AI to Help Us - An Explorative Study Regarding How AI Could Assist Operators in the Main Control Room of Nuclear Power Plants.

Artificial intelligence is regarded as a very promising tool in nuclear power plants. While recent research has made progress in utilizing AI to improve digital systems’ performances in nuclear power plants, less research focuses on connecting AI and reactor operators and understanding how operators want AI to assist them in their work. Such understanding is important because it is the prerequisite for good usability and positive user experience. We address this research gap by conducting an exploratory interview and letting reactor operators’ opinions be voiced out. Through thematic analysis, we derived insights on operators’ understanding of AI, the pain points of their work, and how they expect AI to assist them in their work. We identified three assistive roles that operators want AI to be in nuclear power plants to mitigate their work pressure and discussed the reasons behind their choices. Finally, we discussed the limitations of our research and provide possible future research directions.