Joint Institute for Nuclear Instrumentation and Controls (JINIC)

Securing the Future of Nuclear Energy Through CyberAI and Workforce Innovation

About JINIC

The Joint Institute for Nuclear Instrumentation and Controls (JINIC) is a national, multi-institutional initiative anchored at Tennessee Technological University through its Cybersecurity Education, Research, and Outreach Center (CEROC) and its Nuclear Engineering program. JINIC brings together leading universities, national laboratories, and industry partners to address one of the most pressing challenges in modern energy infrastructure: the secure, intelligent, and resilient operation of digital nuclear instrumentation and control (I&C) systems.

As advanced reactors, micro-reactors, and AI-assisted operations scale under national energy priorities, JINIC provides the coordinated research, workforce development, and technology validation capabilities the nation needs to lead in trustworthy nuclear energy.

The Challenge

The United States stands at a pivotal moment in its pursuit of energy sovereignty. Nuclear energy — clean, dispatchable, and domestically controlled — is central to securing reliable national infrastructure and reducing dependence on foreign energy sources. However, realizing this vision demands more than policy support or reactor innovation.

The deployment of advanced reactors, micro-reactors, and fuel reprocessing technologies depends on transforming how nuclear instrumentation and control systems are designed, secured, and operated. Traditional I&C architectures are not built to withstand evolving cyber-physical threats, integrate AI-driven analytics, or support the autonomous and remote operations demanded by next-generation systems.

JINIC exists to close that gap — establishing the national capability needed to ensure that U.S. nuclear systems are trustworthy, resilient, and ready for the future.

Our Mission

JINIC's mission is to provide the United States with the people, processes, and technologies required to securely deploy and operate next-generation nuclear systems. Through coordinated research, regulatory engagement, technology maturation, and workforce development, JINIC will deliver deployable secure I&C capabilities and a security-aware workforce that strengthens U.S. energy sovereignty, national security, and the domestic nuclear industrial base.

Strategic Research Thrusts

JINIC is organized around five interdependent strategic thrusts, each addressing a critical dimension of secure and scalable nuclear operations. Together, they form a lifecycle of trust — from trustworthy sensing and resilient control through continuous threat detection, effective human oversight, and a trained, adaptable workforce.

 

• Thrust 1: Trusted Instrumentation and Secure Sensing

  Develop resilient, intelligent sensing systems that ensure trustworthy data acquisition in nuclear environments. JINIC will develop tamper-evident, self-validating sensors and secure data pipelines, using AI-driven analytics to monitor sensor health, detect anomalies, and fuse multimodal data streams for robust situational awareness.

• Thrust 2: Resilient Control and Autonomous Operations

  Design secure, AI-enabled control systems that maintain operational integrity under evolving and adversarial conditions. JINIC will advance AI-enabled control algorithms with embedded anomaly detection and fault tolerance, using digital twins to model, test, and validate control logic across a wide range of scenarios.

• Thrust 3: Cybersecurity, Threat Intelligence, and System Resilience

  Protect nuclear I&C systems from cyber-physical threats and ensure rapid detection, response, recovery, and forensic capability across the nuclear lifecycle. JINIC will develop AI-enhanced intrusion detection systems and threat modeling tools specifically designed for nuclear operational technology (OT) environments.

• Thrust 4: Human-System Security and Lifecycle Assurance

  Ensure secure, usable, and safe interaction between humans and AI-enabled nuclear systems across their full lifecycle — from design and training through operation, maintenance, and decommissioning. JINIC will design secure, adaptive human-machine interfaces (HMIs) and develop training environments that simulate cyber-physical disruptions and autonomous system behaviors.

• Thrust 5: Workforce Development and Ecosystem Integration

  Build a sustainable, security-aware workforce and innovation ecosystem to support the deployment, operation, and evolution of AI-driven nuclear I&C systems. JINIC will establish a coordinated national program embedding cybersecurity, AI, digital engineering, and human-systems integration directly into nuclear education and professional development, including stackable credentials, micro-certifications, and experiential learning pathways.

Cross-Cutting Initiatives

 In addition to its five strategic thrusts, JINIC will implement a set of cross-cutting initiatives that promote integration, collaboration, and long-term sustainability across all partner institutions:

• Shared testbeds for validating instrumentation, control, and cybersecurity innovations under realistic nuclear operating conditions

• Unified digital twin infrastructure to support predictive analytics, control logic validation, diagnostics, and operator training

• Joint workforce development programs, including coordinated curriculum design, stackable credentials, internships, apprenticeships, and micro-certifications in nuclear cybersecurity, digital engineering, and AI-enabled operations

• Collaborative data governance and threat intelligence sharing, enabling real-time situational awareness and coordinated response across universities, national laboratories, and industry partners

Partnering Institutions

• Tennessee Technological University (Lead Institution)

  Tennessee Tech leads JINIC through its Cybersecurity Education, Research, and Outreach Center (CEROC) and its Nuclear Engineering program. Tennessee Tech provides institutional leadership, workforce development expertise, and cyber-nuclear integration capabilities essential to JINIC's mission.

• Purdue University

  Purdue brings world-class capabilities through its fully digital research reactor (PUR-1), the first of its kind in the United States. Purdue serves as JINIC's critical innovation hub for experimental I&C research, AI-driven diagnostics, digital twins, and lifecycle validation.

• Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

  ORNL provides national laboratory-scale experimental infrastructure and expertise essential for maturing advanced I&C technologies. ORNL's strengths in modeling and simulation, sensor research, and digital system verification anchor JINIC's ability to transition innovations from research to deployable, regulator-ready solutions.

• Idaho National Laboratory (INL)

  INL contributes operational-scale validation and regulatory transition capabilities for advanced reactor and I&C systems, providing the scale, digital engineering environments, and licensing experience necessary to advance JINIC-developed technologies toward qualification and commercial readiness.

• Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL)

  SRNL brings deep operational experience in nuclear chemical processing, industrial-scale process control, and safeguards. SRNL ensures that JINIC approaches to I&C, procedures, and workforce training are grounded in real-world nuclear operations, safety culture, and human factors.

• Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)

  EPRI contributes industry perspective, applied research expertise, and connections to the broader nuclear energy sector, ensuring that JINIC innovations are aligned with utility needs and deployment realities.

Five-Year Vision

Over five years, JINIC will progress through four phases of maturity — from foundational research and prototype development through system validation, integrated demonstration, and long-term sustainability. Key milestones include:

• Year 1: Institute governance, shared infrastructure, framework design, and initial curriculum development
• Year 2: Prototype development, testbed deployment, and pilot workforce programs
• Year 3: Adversarial testing, expanded training, and NRC/DOE regulatory engagement
• Year 4: Integrated demonstrations, national outreach, and cross-institutional data sharing
• Year 5: Technology transition, sustainability planning, and national workforce scaling

Get Involved

JINIC welcomes inquiries from universities, national laboratories, industry partners, and policymakers who share our commitment to the future of secure nuclear energy in the United States.

For more information about JINIC or to explore partnership opportunities, please contact:

Dr. Muhammad Ismail

Director and Professor of Computer Science

Cybersecurity Education, Research, and Outreach Center (CEROC)

Tennessee Technological University

ceroc@tntech.edu