A major UK artificial intelligence project is expanding into the nuclear sector, with PA Consulting joining a coalition led by London-based AI company Cosine.

The partnership will help develop Lumen Sovereign, a UK sovereign AI initiative designed for highly regulated and nationally important industries. One of its first priorities is a nuclear-trained large language model for Britain's civil and defence nuclear sectors.

The proposed AI system is intended to make specialist nuclear knowledge more accessible and support areas including knowledge management, engineering and operational work.

PA Consulting will bring expertise from its work in complex and regulated environments, including projects connected with Sellafield and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The collaboration is also expected to explore wider applications of sovereign AI across government, defence, financial services, healthcare and critical infrastructure.

Cosine says its sovereign AI programme is being developed with UK government support and is designed to give organisations greater control over AI models, infrastructure and sensitive data. The wider coalition already includes several major UK organisations.

The development comes as Britain increases its focus on domestic AI capability and infrastructure. The UK government has previously announced support for Cosine's Lumen Sovereign project through its Sovereign AI programme, with the model planned to be trained on UK infrastructure.