AI-Enabled Digital Infrastructures for Safety, Security, and Resilience in Small Modular Reactors

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) offer significant advantages in terms of safety, modular deployment, and operational flexibility, but their increasing reliance on digital instrumentation, automation, and connectivity introduces new cyber-physical and resilience challenges. This chapter examines the role of AI-enabled digital infrastructures in enhancing the safety, security, and resilience of SMR systems. It discusses the application of machine learning, digital twins, and physics-informed AI for condition monitoring, anomaly detection, predictive maintenance, and decision support. Cybersecurity risks such as sensor spoofing, false data injection, and control signal tampering are analyzed, along with AI-based mitigation strategies. The chapter further integrates resilience engineering principles and human-in-the-loop oversight to support trustworthy and regulator-acceptable SMR operation.