An Expert System to Assist Researchers with Nuclear Materials Experiment Design
The Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) was created in 2007 to open National Laboratory capabilities to university, laboratory, and industry researchers. Originally founded at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), NSUF leveraged excess capacity in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) and the Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF) hot cells. In the eleven years since its inception, the NSUF has expanded to include most of the capabilities at the Idaho National Laboratory as well as twenty external ‘partner’ facilities. The inclusion of the partner facilities makes the NSUF the first distributed user facility, a ‘laboratory without walls.’ This paper will present recent developments in CoMET, including how the databases interconnect to create a powerful tool for NSUF users and how the Wizard is expected to change the workflow for NSUF users, staff, and partner facilities. The paper will conclude with some remarks of how CoMET demonstrates the feasibility of a broader integration of nuclear information and tools, paving the way for further collaboration and innovation following the NuKIT paradigm.