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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.
B.B. Glasgow, W.G. Wolfer
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 1 | July 1985 | Pages 546-552
Material Engineering — Behavior | Proceedings of the Sixth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (San Francisco, California, March 3-7, 1985) | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A40096
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Ferritic steels have been shown to swell much less than 316 austenitic stainless steel. For this reason ferritic steels are being considered for fusion reactor applications as an alternative to 316 austenitic stainless steel. A lifetime analysis based on crack propagation has been done for ferritic steel using typical first wall parameters. The results for ferritic steel are compared to results from a similar analysis done for 316 austenitic stainless steel. The comparison shows that ferritic steels have lower thermal stresses than 316 austenitic stainless steel by a factor of about 2. Because of the lower thermal stresses, the cyclic stresses resulting from the plasma-on/plasma-off cycles are reduced and the predicted fatigue crack growth rate is less for ferritic steels. The analysis predicts a lifetime more than 10 times longer for ferritic steel than for 316 austenitic stainless steel. The comparison clearly shows the great potential of ferritic steel over 316 austenitic stainless steel as a first wall material to achieve the high wall loading desired for future fusion reactors.
