The paper gives an overview of ML activities to the field of nuclear science and engineering (NS&E), from reactor-oriented applications to detection-oriented applications. The paper also covers the recent successful application of ML to identify nuclear data needs and critical issues across the nuclear data pipeline, from finding the best parameter sets for nuclear reaction codes to describe a reaction to highlighting the need of new evaluations of nuclear data.
The paper concludes that fostering collaborations between nuclear engineering researchers and experts in the ML/AI community and attracting young talent to this scientific area will be critical for a successful outcome. In this sense, Universities will play an important role updating nuclear engineering academic programs with ML/AI disciplines which ensure competent graduate and undergraduate nuclear engineers familiarized with these techniques.