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Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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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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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.
Y. Ronen, Y. Dali
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 130 | Number 2 | October 1998 | Pages 239-253
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE98-A2003
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new concept for a core in a high-conversion reactor is presented. This core consists of tight lattice fuel elements enriched with plutonium. These fuel elements are made up of layers of higher enrichment (mixed-oxide fuel) and natural uranium; therefore, the core is composed of alternate layers of high- and low-enrichment fuels. The reactor with this core was nicknamed "Big Mac."Due to spectral effects and leakage into and out of the different zones, it was found that this reactor has a high conversion ratio >0.9 with negative void coefficient, a relatively long fuel cycle, with 6% average fissile plutonium enrichments. Several interesting spectral effects were found and analyzed.
