Fuzzy logic in nuclear engineering

Nuclear engineering is one of the areas with a large potential for applications of fuzzy technologies, in which, however, the development is still in its infancy. The nuclear power industry requests special demands on plant safety, surpassing all other industries in its safety culture. Due to the public awareness of the risks of nuclear industry and the very strict safety regulations in force for nuclear power plants, fuzzy logic applications in nuclear engineering present a tremendous challenge. The very same regulations prevent a researcher from quickly introducing novel fuzzy-logic methods into this field. On the other hand, the application of fuzzy logic has, despite the ominous sound of the word ‘fuzzy’ to nuclear engineers, a number of very desirable advantages over classical methods, e.g., its robustness and the capability to include human experience into the controller. In this paper, we first briefly outline nuclear applications of fuzzy logic in the world. We then review some relevant applications of fuzzy logic in nuclear engineering. Finally, we present an on-going project on application of fuzzy logic control of the first Belgian Reactor and other related applications of fuzzy logic at the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre. We conclude that research in fuzzy technologies has reached a degree where industrial application is possible. Investigations into this direction and in particular in nuclear engineering are still very rare, but some existing results seem promising.