update

Zettelkasten/Fleeting Notes/Journal/2025_08_05.md

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+---
+---
+
+# 2025-08-05
+
+## Morning Brief
+I didn't finish the thesis ideas from yesterday. Oopsie!
+Today is different though. Curently, I'm working from
+home^*, which really means I'm working in a coffee shop on
+Washington road. I'm at the Orbis Cafe, where I purchased a
+cinnamon roll and a cappucino. The caffeine has yet to hit,
+but when it does, I'll be cooking I'm sure. This is a nice
+spot and it's very relaxing to get things done while other
+people are around. I like this a lot, and perhaps I should
+do this more often while I'm at school too. 
+
+Anyways, Dan is OOO taking time off while he can before the
+fall semester. Who can blame him?
+
+Patrick and I discussed more PINN stuff yesterday. I should
+make a simple PINN demonstration.
+

Zettelkasten/Permanent Notes/thesis-ideas.md

@@ -160,10 +160,12 @@ ___________________________________________________________
 
 ### Goals:
 The goal of this research is to use machine learning to
-identify system faults of a reactor control system. A
-digital twin will be compared to measurements from a real
-plant to identify issues such as coolant losses, sensor and
-actuator failures, or component degredation.
+identify system faults of a reactor control system during
+runtime. A digital twin will be compared to measurements
+from a real plant to identify issues such as coolant losses,
+sensor and actuator failures, or component degredation so
+that safety strategic decisions about the plant can be made
+autonomously.
 
 ### Outcomes:
 For this research to be successful, I will accomplish the
@@ -175,11 +177,43 @@ following:
 
 - Develop a physics informed neural network (PINN) approach
   to evaluate physics discrepancies in measured signals and
-  to estimate physically relevant parameters
+  to estimate physically relevant parameters to determine
+  real system divergence from the nominal plant. 
 
-- 
+- Realize a proof of concept autonomous controller than can
+  react to fault conditions by switching to different
+control modes rather than only responding with reactor
+shutdown.
 
 ### Impact:
+The nuclear energy industry's largest expense is operations
+and maintenance (O&M). These costs include typical reactor repair
+and refueling, the labor involved to complete such
+maintenance, and finally the labor involved in operating the
+reactor itself. Currently the largest of these O&M expenses
+is the labor and part cost used in maintenance, while large
+nuclear reactor facilities require a modest reactor operator
+budget per megawatt of energy produced. The advent of small
+modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors (MRs) will change
+these economics significantly. 
+
+As SMRs and MRs become more common, the cost of repair and
+maintenance should reduce dramatically as nuclear power
+componnets will become modular, replaceable parts instead of
+the bespoke reactor designs currently operating. Operator
+wages, however, can be expected to increase without
+introducing greater controller autonomy. SMRs and MRs are
+much smaller output designs per reactor core, and if they
+are required to employ the same size reactor operator team
+as a conventional large reactor, will suffer from much
+larger operator expense per megawatt. Greater controller
+autonomy can solve this problem by unloading some reactor
+control responsibilities from the operator, and therein
+reduce labor consumption.
+
+<# TO DO #>
+Finally reactor safety can be improved by greater autonomy
+yada yada find some reasons to back this up.
 
 ### Related Papers: