AI + Metaverse: Cutting Nuclear Field Engineering Time & Costs at Scale

Transforming Nuclear Plant Operations with GenAI and Virtual Reality

Nuclear Energy Business Unit of Hitachi partnered with GlobalLogic to build a secure, AI-powered Metaverse platform that enables remote access to nuclear facilities, eliminating the need for time-consuming site inspections and manual data searches.

The platform integrates Generative AI, virtual reality, and digital twin technology to improve collaboration, accelerate document access, and lay the foundation for data-driven plant operations.

Challenge

Nuclear field engineering is costly, time-consuming, and constrained by strict regulatory requirements. Nuclear Energy Business Unit of Hitachi faced operational delays due to limited on-site access, slow data retrieval, and the complexity of coordinating across multiple engineering teams and suppliers.

Engineers were spending significant time searching through terabytes of scattered technical documentation, creating friction in decision-making and increasing project risk.

A smarter, safer nuclear future: The GenAI-powered digital twin enables secure virtual access, faster decision-making, and real-time collaboration in one of the world’s most regulated industries.

Value Created

GlobalLogic designed and developed a scalable, web-based AI and Metaverse platform hosted securely on the client’s infrastructure. The system recreates the nuclear plant’s physical and engineering environment using CAD and point cloud data, enabling fully remote collaboration and streamlined operations.

Core capabilities include:

• Immersive Digital Twin for simulating the nuclear facility’s layout.
  
• GenAI-powered search for retrieving technical documents instantly.
  
• Multi-user virtual workspace for real-time engineering collaboration, made possible through a custom server-client architecture designed to align with the client’s network and security protocols.
  
• Web accessibility—no need for VR headsets or high-spec hardware; standard optimization techniques, such as frustum culling and occlusion, were used to ensure seamless performance when handling complex 3D assets in a browser environment.
  
• Automated document generation for meeting minutes, technical manuals, and weekly reports.

This intelligent platform enhances both productivity and regulatory compliance, while removing physical barriers to progress.

To comply with strict regulatory requirements, the solution was built without access to production nuclear data; all sensitive CAD and PCD files remained securely on client servers, with the platform designed to scale securely in real-world deployment.

The image of the space generated with the newly developed metaverse technology, courtesy of Hitachi.

Impact

The solution delivered immediate operational benefits while building a foundation for future growth:

• 20% reduction in field engineering.
  
• 50% faster access to technical engineering data.
  
• Significantly reduced travel costs and inspection delays.
  
• Improved supplier coordination through virtual reviews of plant designs.
  
• Remote training and knowledge transfer via immersive virtual environments.
  
• Strategic enablement for a future-ready, data-driven power plant.
  

The platform is more than a collaboration tool. It forms the foundation of a future-ready, data-driven power plant capable of driving predictive maintenance, investment planning, and continuous operational insight.

GlobalLogic not only engineered the solution, but also collaborated closely on the future-state vision, solution architecture, and user experience design, laying the strategic and technical foundation for long-term transformation.

Learn how  Hitachi and GlobalLogic are redefining how nuclear operations can be managed — securely, efficiently, and intelligently.