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2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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AI at work: Southern Nuclear’s adoption of Copilot agents drives fleet forward
Southern Nuclear is leading the charge in artificial intelligence integration, with employee-developed applications driving efficiencies in maintenance, operations, safety, and performance.
The tools span all roles within the company, with thousands of documented uses throughout the fleet, including improved maintenance efficiency, risk awareness in maintenance activities, and better-informed decision-making. The data-intensive process of preparing for and executing maintenance operations is streamlined by leveraging AI to put the right information at the fingertips for maintenance leaders, planners, schedulers, engineers, and technicians.
Naoya Matsui, Takahiro Maegawa, Kazuyuki Noborio, Ryuta Kasada, Yasushi Yamamoto, Satoshi Konishi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 64 | Number 3 | September 2013 | Pages 692-696
Test Blanket, Fuel Cycle, and Breeding | Proceedings of the Twentieth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE-2012) (Part 2) Nashville, Tennessee, August 27-31, 2012 | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A19173
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Neutron transport and energy composition of neutron beam extracted from a cylindrical discharge type fusion device was studied by using the computer simulation code, MCNP. In this study, three concepts of neutron beam optics (reflector and moderator) were proposed and examined; combined reflector which consists of two layers of different materials, inserting a moderator into the reflector to thermalize the neutron beam, and bending the extraction channel to avoid direct extraction of high energy neutrons. Combined reflector system produces 3.2 times higher neutron flux than no reflector when using W and Fe as outer and inner reflectors. The beam convergence is not dependent on reflector materials. Polyethylene (PE) and Fe combination produces fast neutron beam where more than 90% of the neutrons are fast. Combination of PE and D2O produces more than 30% thermalized neutron beam, but it contains epithermal and fast neutrons. When using moderator (D2O), the thickness of which is over 30 cm, more than 90% of the neutrons are thermalized. The bend angle of 20° produces more than 80% thermalized neutron beam. Both inserting moderator and bending channel are effective to extract thermalized neutron beam. These results are useful for designing a neutron source which can produce specified neutron beam.
