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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.
Mauricio Tano, Pablo Rubiolo (Univ of Grenoble-Alpes), Julien Giraud, Veronique Ghetta (LPSC, CNRS/IN2P3)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 469-478
The main passive safety system of the Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR) is a cold plug, placed in the bottom of the reactor. In case of an uncontrolled temperature rise in the reactor core, this plug melts, allowing the draining of the molten fuel salt towards a safe configuration. In the present paper, the main physical phenomena occurring in the MSFR during the draining process is presented. Then, a physical model for simulating the draining process is introduced. This model is then used for analyzing different draining scenarios. Finally, the velocity and temperature fields obtained for this scenarios are analyzed in the light of safety considerations.