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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.
A. W. Cronenberg, H. K. Fauske, D. T. Eggen
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 50 | Number 1 | January 1973 | Pages 53-62
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE73-A22588
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
As part of the liquid-metal fast breeder reactor (LMFBR) safety program, the consequences of a hypothetical molten-fuel release into sodium coolant following fuel pin failure(s) must be evaluated, in order that design constraints can be established to maximize the safety and minimize the economical penalties of such an event. This work represents the first attempt to interpret the voiding rates obtained from an in-pile, fuel-failure experiment in the TREAT reactor in terms of a molten fuel-coolant interaction. Results indicate that it is not only possible to reduce in-pile data to a workable form, but also to obtain representation of loop conditions for simple geometries. The analysis has been successful in reproducing the experimental voiding history in a selected TREAT experiment. It is further shown that the formation of condensate at cold boundaries significantly reduces the amount of energy imparted to the expanding vapor bubble, which in turn limits the extent of the thermal-to-mechanical energy conversion process. It is important to account for this effect when extrapolating in-pile results to reactor conditions.