We would like to thank our industry partners who attended this workshop. Without their participation, the workshop would have not been possible. To this end, we are particularly grateful for the effort and support Dustin Greenwood of NuScale, Patrick Kopfle of Dominion Energy, Jim Hill of Xcel Energy, and Asgeir Drøivoldsmo of the Institute for Energy Technology provided in developing presentations to share at the workshop. Indeed, these presentations were absolutely integral to the engagement and success of the workshop.

Commercial nuclear power in the U.S. has been an unqualified success by any measure, providing safe, low-cost, carbon-free baseload electricity for decades. Today, the industry is at the peak of its historical performance in terms of generation output, reliable operations, and demonstrated nuclear safety. However, with the emergence of subsidized renewables and shale-gas generation, it is no longer among the lowest-cost electric generation sources. The business model that served the operating nuclear fleet so well over its initial lifespan is now a drag on cost performance, due to its reliance on a large, highly skilled labor force. In contrast, digital technology and innovation are enabling dramatic efficiencies in energy production, resulting in fierce competition for commodities such as electricity. The nuclear power industry responded to this challenge with many initiatives to improve efficiency and modernize plant equipment, especially in areas where reliability and obsolescence issues are pressing. However, it would be a missed opportunity to merely modernize the plant components and work processes of an outdated business model formulated to manage the technology of the 1960s. Rather, the greater opportunity is to transform that business model into one that fully exploits the capabilities of modern digital technology, resulting in substantially lower production costs and sustainable market viability. A successful example of one such transformation is the concept of integrated operations (IO), introduced into the North Sea oil and gas (O&G) industry a couple decades ago when the profitability of operating these fields was severely threatened by low global petroleum prices and the high overhead of operating offshore O&G platforms. This effort resulted in significant changes to how these oil fields were operated, enabling the industry to continue operating the platforms profitably. This example has remarkable parallels to the U.S. commercial nuclear industry. This report provides an analysis and planning framework for transforming the current nuclear power plant (NPP) operating model via transferable learnings from the North Sea O&G industry. This framework is termed "Integrated Operations for Nuclear" (ION). This report describes the key principles and methods of IO and how they are being applied via collaboration between the Department of Energy (DOE) Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program and Xcel Energy in an initiative to transform the NPP operating model in order to foster performance improvement and long-term sustainability. It describes a method for bringing the operating costs of a nuclear fleet in line with market-based pricing and transforming work functions to reduce costs via technological innovations. This initiative will continue over the next several years in the form of detailed development of transformative concepts for NPPs-the results of which will be published as a follow-up to this initial report on ION.

Advanced nuclear reactors offer a new set of features to energy generation, due to their ability to adapt to variable energy demand, operate autonomously, be deployed in rural locations and monitored remotely, afford compact size and lower power ratings, and rely on novel technologies to achieve safer operations. Thus, a requirement for the success of these reactors is the use of intelligent forms of control to track changing power demands, make autonomous decisions, and reduce the need for human involvement. vii

The nuclear industry has identified data digitalization and information automation as topics needing focused research. In response, Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program researchers are developing and evaluating methods for effectively mapping and managing plant data through System Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA), System-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP), and Causal Analysis. The results provide an optimized process for converting data to information enabling deeper insight, and more effective actionthereby allowing utilities to operate safely and costcompetitively. This research includes developing methods to evolve plant data into useful plant insights and validates the use of STPA and STAMP using highlevel safety constraints in the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission's problem identification and resolution process (i.e., a plant compliance information gathering activity).Researchers are also investigating how human and technology integration principles, digitalization, and information automation enable the conversion of data to information or "data evolution". The next step in this research, described in the following sections of this report, is to map out data evolution in other plant compliance activitiesevent investigations and root cause analyses. This LWRS Program-supported research and development contributes to the comprehensive guidance for utilities considering or undertaking full nuclear plant modernization.

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