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Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Latest News
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.
J. S. Jaquez, M. O. Havre, A. Nikroo, S. D. Bhandarkar, M. Wang, B. Stahl, K. Kangas, M. P. Farrell
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 73 | Number 3 | April 2018 | Pages 370-379
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1387461
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Research at General Atomics and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been focused on evaluating depleted uranium (DU) hohlraum fabrication over the past 10 years to improve the yield, thereby increasing the availability of DU hohlruams required to support the increased shot rate at the National Ignition Facility. The more straightforward gold (Au) hohlraum fabrication involves four basic steps: mandrel fabrication, electroplating, back machining and milling, and leaching. For Au, the overall fabrication yield of this process approaches 98% [H. Streckert and K. Blobaum, Fusion Sci. Technol., Vol. 63, p. 213 (2013)] Depleted uranium lined hohlraum fabrication, however, requires deposition of a multilayer of thin films after the mandrel fabrication step. These thin film deposition processes have historically proven difficult to execute on a complex cylindrical geometry of a hohlraum, resulting in unacceptable stress-driven delamination, with net yields ranging 20% to 35% [H. L. Wilkens et al., Phys. Plasmas, Vol. 14, 056310 (2007)]. Recent hohlraum design and fabrication process changes, as well as material selections implemented between 2014 and 2016, have improved the fabrication yield to over 60%. These changes are discussed here as well as plans for future improvements.