For nuclear to be considered as a viable clean energy source, it has to be competitively priced and economical to produce. 

Lauren Fortier, a second-year doctoral student in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE), is helping the cause by developing remote operation protocols for autonomous control of nuclear plants. 

After an undergraduate degree in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University — Fortier attended on an ROTC scholarship — she supervised nuclear plant operations on a U.S. aircraft carrier deep in the South China Sea. “It was a unique experience that you don’t easily see anywhere else, especially the complete reliance on nuclear power. The only way you’re moving through the ocean is if you have that nuclear reactor working,” she says.

Working as a naval nuclear operator, Fortier fell in love with the operations aspects of it all, learning the science behind plant operations. She also became more aware of process shortcomings. Fortier noticed many plant operations were extremely manually intensive, and wondered if they could be less so.

At around the time she was mulling these ideas, the Navy offered Fortier an opportunity to pursue a master’s degree from a list of approved disciplines. Fortier opted for nuclear engineering at MIT as an extension of her work. “My experiences in nuclear up until then had been overwhelmingly positive, so I thought I would build on them and move from the operations realm to the academic realm,” Fortier says. The intense training with the Navy prepared her for the academic rigor at MIT.

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