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Conference Spotlight
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.
J. E. Bodine, I. J. Groce, J. Guon, L. A. Hanson
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 19 | Number 1 | May 1964 | Pages 1-7
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE64-A19784
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The oxidative decladding of UO2 fuels has been demonstrated on three-foot sections of unirradiated fuel rods and on eight-inch sections of fuel rods irradiated to 21,000 MWd/MTU. Decladding rates were unaffected by the extent of irradiation. Uranium dioxide which was unirradiated, irradiated, and with fissia added to simulate 100,000 MWd/MTU irradiation was declad at similar rates. The effect of pressure and temperature on decladding rates was determined. Puncturing the cladding greatly enhanced the rate and gave a coarser product. This product was not completely converted to U3O8 during oxidative decladding. Greater than 99.9% of the UO2 fuel was removed from the cladding. There was no detectable contamination of the product by the cladding material. Little or no fission-product or plutonium decontamination was observed. Dissolution rates for the declad product, in 50% nitric acid, were 20 times as fast as for the “as received” UO2 fuel.
