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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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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.
S. J. Altschuler, C. L. Schuske
Nuclear Technology | Volume 13 | Number 2 | February 1972 | Pages 131-147
Technical Paper | Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT72-A31048
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Two models are described for calculating critically safe storage configurations for uranium (93.4% 235U) and plutonium (96% 239Pu, 4% 240Pu) metal. The first model deals with conventional arrays in air of fissile units surrounded by concrete walls. The model uses the concepts of surface density and unit surface-to-volume ratio to define safe-array parameters. The second model makes use of thick internal moderators (i.e., water) enclosing each storage unit in an array. These arrays are also surrounded by concrete walls. The internal moderators partially isolate adjacent storage units from one another and thus, in some cases, permit extremely high surface densities and vault loading. Several factors that influence the storage model are shape and density of the individual storage units and the degree of reflection of arrays of units.
