Modernizing mission-critical nuclear oversight
Replacing a 20-year-old legacy platform to modernize how the U.S. nuclear power industry evaluates, observes, and safeguards plant operations across the globe.
Discuss Your Project
A mission-critical modernization
The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) came to Digital Scientists with a critical challenge: their 20-year-old evaluation and collaboration platforms were creating mounting technical debt and security risks for the teams who evaluate commercial nuclear power plants worldwide.
What began as an 8-week Product Blueprint evolved into an ongoing partnership spanning multiple engagements. Digital Scientists designed, built, and delivered a modern web-based evaluation platform — from initial discovery through production deployment, dashboard design, and continued support and enhancements.
Client
INPO (Institute of Nuclear Power Operations)
Industries
Energy, Nuclear Power, Nonprofit
Services
Product Blueprint, UX Research & Design, Agile Development, Platform Engineering, Dashboard Design, QA & Automated Testing, CI/CD, Ongoing Support & Enhancements
Location
Atlanta, GA
20+
Year-old legacy platform replaced
4
Platform applications delivered
30%
Reduction in task completion time
Multi-yr
Ongoing partnership
“Digital Scientists has been a strong partner of INPO, providing continued communication with our users who have been waiting a long time for this platform. Digital Scientists designed and developed efficient products for us that allow our busy evaluators to focus on what matters most.”
Chameka Amerson
Director, Information Technology — INPO
Guardians of nuclear safety since 1979
The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) was established in 1979 by the U.S. nuclear power industry following the Three Mile Island accident. Headquartered in Atlanta, INPO is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote the highest levels of safety and reliability in the operation of commercial nuclear power plants.
INPO accomplishes this through integrated performance monitoring, plant evaluations, member support missions, and peer reviews. They accredit training programs, ensure regulatory compliance, and develop shared operating experience and lessons learned to help each member achieve excellence.
With teams operating across nuclear facilities worldwide — often in low-bandwidth, high-security environments — INPO’s digital tools must be as reliable and precise as the operations they support.
Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant — Waynesboro, Georgia
Two legacy platforms, one urgent need for change
INPO’s evaluation and collaboration work depended on two aging platforms that were limiting their mission-critical operations:
Legacy Evaluation Platform
An outdated, custom-built application that guided INPO team members through the process of observing and evaluating nuclear energy plants. Built on technology over 20 years old, it had become difficult to maintain and evolve.
- Difficult to support due to outdated custom technology
- Limited scalability and no support for modern workflows
Legacy Collaboration Platform
A legacy collaboration platform — originally intended as temporary — had been in place for over 3 years, frustrating both internal teams and industry partners.
- Cumbersome collaboration between INPO and plant counterparts
- Internal and industry complaints about usability
INPO leadership made it clear: the measure of success for any replacement depended entirely on user adoption. The new platform had to unify observation capture and collaboration in a single place, deliver a seamless experience for both INPO evaluators and plant employees, and be built for interoperability and future integrations.
An 8-week Product Blueprint built for nuclear-grade precision
Before writing a single line of production code, our Product Blueprint methodology provided a structured process of concept prototyping, user validation, and development-ready architecture — giving INPO a common understanding of their digital initiative and confidence to move into full development.
Alignment & Discovery
Weeks 1–2
- On-site stakeholder interviews
- Alignment workshop with vision statement & goals
- Product ecosystem mapping
- MoSCoW design criteria prioritization
Prototyping & Validation
Weeks 3–6
- Low-fidelity wireframes for user flow consensus
- Visual design direction
- Clickable prototype (Evaluator & Industry Counterpart)
- 6 user validation interviews (60 min each)
Development Setup
Weeks 7–8
- Solution architecture documentation
- CI/CD pipeline setup
- Sprint-ready user stories and backlog
- Custom design system & component library
Designed with the people who protect nuclear safety
We didn’t just interview users at the start — we relied on their feedback at every step. Through stakeholder interviews, alignment workshops, and co-creation sessions, we placed users at the center of every decision. INPO leadership told us the measure of success depended entirely on user adoption, and we took that to heart.
Operations Evaluators
Conduct comprehensive peer reviews of plant operations, safety, and performance against industry standards
Continuum Leaders
Build long-term relationships with plant leadership teams, fostering trust and continuous improvement
Accreditation & Training
Ensure nuclear plants meet safety and regulatory standards over 6-year evaluation cycles
Industry Counterparts
Plant-side partners who validate findings and collaborate on improvement areas across global facilities
Validating with real users at every step
“I like the layout. I like the color coding. Visually it’s more appealing and it seems way easier to maneuver.”
INPO Evaluator
“I like it, it looks more like a web application with better collaboration. I love the ability for counterparts to view and comment — brings transparency.”
Continuum Leader
“You’ve built a lot of the concepts that we currently use. I think that will help people quickly come up to speed on what is intended with the tool.”
Senior Evaluator
“A better way to collaborate with the industry counterparts. Right now collaborating is very painful.”
Operations Evaluator
“I really like the ability to add custom headers in the report functionality because I would rather be able to organize stuff.”
Accreditation Evaluator
“Ensuring safety is critical for us. Having peace of mind to know what is shared and to who is essential.”
Team Leader
From blueprint to production platform
With a validated blueprint in hand, Digital Scientists moved directly into agile development — building the production platform across two-week sprint cycles with continuous stakeholder collaboration.
Evaluation Platform
A complete web-based replacement for the legacy evaluation and collaboration platforms. The platform unified observation capture, interaction management, and collaboration into a single modern application.
- Observation and interaction capture for plant evaluations
- Real-time collaboration between INPO evaluators and station counterparts
- Offline data retention for low-bandwidth plant environments
- Integration with existing INPO systems
Corrective Action Records
A dedicated application for managing corrective action records — enabling secure document upload, search, and retrieval with role-based permissions and encryption to protect sensitive nuclear operational data.
- Secure document management for corrective action records
- Full-text search across evaluation documents
- DOE CFR 8.10 export control compliance
- Role-based access controls and authentication
Performance Dashboards
Running concurrently with platform development, we designed operational dashboards through stakeholder interviews, concept storyboards, and data visualization design — integrating with the client's business intelligence platforms.
Agile Methodology
Two-week sprint cycles with regular planning, demos, and weekly stakeholder reviews. Continuous integration and deployment with automated testing at every release.
A complete platform ecosystem, not just a prototype
From validated prototypes through production-ready applications, we delivered a comprehensive platform ecosystem along with the design system and documentation to sustain it.
Future-ready capabilities for the energy industry
Through co-creation workshops, we identified high-potential innovation opportunities that extend the platform’s value. Offline mode was implemented in the production build; AI-powered features and internationalization capabilities position INPO for continued digital leadership.
AI-Powered Automation
Applying AI to automate workflows and accelerate analysis of evaluation data
Offline Mode • Shipped
Web-based platform with offline data retention and sync for low-bandwidth nuclear plant environments
Internationalization
Multi-language support to serve international plant evaluation teams
Intelligent Reporting
Advanced analytics to reduce cognitive load and accelerate decision-making
Beyond delivery: sustained support and evolution
What started as a Product Blueprint has grown into a multi-year partnership. Beyond initial delivery, Digital Scientists continues to provide production support, maintenance, compliance reviews, and platform enhancements driven by user feedback.
To ensure long-term sustainability, we invested in knowledge transfer through pair-programming sessions, comprehensive documentation, and hands-on training — equipping INPO’s teams to own and evolve the platform independently.
Production Support
Ongoing support requests and incident resolution for mission-critical operations
Continuous Enhancement
Regular software enhancements driven by user feedback and evolving requirements
Knowledge Transfer
Pair-programming, documentation, and training to ensure INPO can maintain and extend the platform
From legacy burden to modern platform
Across multiple engagements and an ongoing partnership, the collaboration with INPO replaced two decades of technical debt with a production platform built for the next generation of nuclear safety operations.
30%+ reduction in task completion time
Streamlined processes significantly enhanced evaluator productivity in the field
Two legacy platforms fully replaced
Two legacy platforms unified into a single modern platform for observation, collaboration, and document management
Offline-capable field operations
Evaluators can capture observations in low-bandwidth nuclear plant environments with reliable data sync
DOE CFR 8.10 export control compliance
Secure handling of nuclear operational data meeting Department of Energy regulatory standards
Sustained partnership and knowledge transfer
From initial blueprint to ongoing enhancements, training, and production support — a true end-to-end engagement
Ready to modernize your energy operations?
From nuclear safety to grid management, we build mission-critical platforms for the energy industry. Let’s discuss how Digital Scientists can help transform your operations.