Heuristic decision model for intelligent nuclear power systems design

The objective of this project was to investigate intelligent nuclear power systems design. A theoretical model of the design process has been developed. A fundamental process in this model is the heuristic decision making for design (i.e., selection of methods, components, materials, etc.). Rule-based expert systems do not provide the completeness that is necessary to generate good design. A new method, based on the fuzzy set theory, has been developed and is presented here. A feedwater system knowledge base (KB) was developed for a prototype software experiment to benchmark the theory.