Participants at the NEA Workshop to Explore the Use of Artificial Intelligence within Regulatory Agencies, held March 25-26, 2026 at NEA Headquarters.
The NEA Working Group on New Technologies (WGNT) held a workshop on March 25-26, 2026 to advance collective understanding of how artificial intelligence (AI) can support regulatory oversight and internal processes within nuclear regulatory agencies.
The event brought together nuclear regulators and AI experts from regulatory agencies from 15 NEA member countries and international organizations to present case studies of AI tools being developed or already in use. This includes using AI to create summaries and presentations, using AI to enhance simulations, finding information from regulatory documents, and more. The event enabled an open discussion of practical lessons learned, use cases, and how to identify valuable AI applications.
Key takeaways from the discussion include:
- An AI framework should be established that includes procedures and guidance for the use of AI in regulatory bodies.
- The right range of AI tasks and projects performs best.
- AI tools and projects need clear success criteria.
- On-premises models and tools can serve as a solution to cybersecurity, data sovereignty, and data protection issues. and
- Human expertise remains essential for decision-making and leveraging AI output.
The workshop fostered a lively discussion as participants compared implementation experiences, identified common concerns, and recognized opportunities for further collaboration.
presentations and Q&A discussion during the workshop
WGNT Vice-Chair Etu Ahonen led the workshop and reflected on the workshop’s outcomes as follows.
“This workshop demonstrated the value of international collaboration. Although each regulator is studying AI from a different angle, our experiences with deploying AI tools, data security challenges, and ensuring human oversight are strikingly similar. By sharing openly and learning from each other, we are strengthening our ability to use AI responsibly and efficiently to improve nuclear safety.”
This workshop will be hosted by the NEA Working Group on New Technologies (WGNT) and will provide a forum for regulators and their technical support organizations to exchange information and experience on lifecycle regulation of new technologies, help develop common understanding, and explore opportunities to reach common regulatory positions related to new technologies. NEA plans to publish a brochure summarizing the results, challenges, and good practices of a major workshop on the regulatory use of AI.
