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2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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Fusion Science and Technology
November 2025
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.
Baoling Zhang, Shuoyang Fang, Jun Wang, Xue Su, Shujian Tian
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 6 | August 2021 | Pages 437-445
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1927583
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Helium bubble growth and coalescence in the slip plane as well as the influence on substrate were studied using the molecular dynamics method. In the slip plane, the helium bubbles grow first along the slip plane and then grow toward the side which is short one atomic layer in the form of a hexagonal structure at low temperature. The growth rates of helium bubbles are related to the addition rate of helium atoms and their surrounding environments. After coalescence, the coalesced helium bubble grows first toward the side that is short one atomic layer. Then it grows along the slip plane with a velocity less than the growth rate before coalescence. Helium bubble growth and coalescence in the slip plane have significant influence on the substrate. During the process, the preexisting slipping metal atoms are pushed back to the normal lattice sites, and the crystal structure of the metal is recovered around the helium bubbles. The recovered area changes with the number of helium atoms in the bubble and the temperature of the substrate. The simulation results indicate that the preexisting grain boundary is beneficial for enhancing the helium damage resistance of metal.