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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.
Gary E. Rochau, Charles W. Morrow, Peter J. Pankuch
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 43 | Number 3 | May 2003 | Pages 447-455
Technical Paper | Fast Ignition Targets and Z-Pinch Concepts | doi.org/10.13182/FST03-A290
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Z-Pinch Power Plant (ZP-3) is the first concept to use the results at Sandia National Laboratories' Z accelerator in a power plant application. Assuming high-yield fusion pulses (of 1 to 20 GJ per shot at a rate of 0.1 Hz), we consider a unique shock and energy absorbing system to contain the energy. One concept answers the need for system standoff from the fusion reaction with a replaceable mechanical cartridge manufactured on-site. System studies suggest integrated blanket designs for absorbing the fusion energy, cartridge manufacture of recycled materials, and cartridge installation/replacement to maintain a reasonable duty cycle. An effective system design for ZP-3 requires an integrated blanket to shield the permanent structures from the high-energy neutron flux and strong shock wave, breed tritium, and simultaneously absorb the released fusion energy. We investigate the feasibility of this integrated blanket concept and explore the principles of a containment chamber - a crucible - and the containment mechanisms. An operational cycle is proposed to physically load hardware in 10-s intervals while maintaining operational conditions. Preliminary pressure and shock calculations demonstrate that high-yield inertial fusion energy pulses can be contained if the appropriate energy-absorbing materials are used.