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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.
Shiyi He, Yan Xia, Fei Xu, Leidang Zhou, Xiaoping Ouyang
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 195 | Number 2 | February 2021 | Pages 148-160
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2020.1794454
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Alpha-decay propulsion technology, a microthrust technology based on thin spontaneous-alpha-decay films, is proposed in this paper. A large quantity of decayed alpha particles emitted from the upper surface of thin films would generate thrust statistically. Simulations were executed using the Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code (MCNP) to acquire the energy and angular distributions of escaping alpha particles, as well as the key parameters of alpha-decay films. A 22.40-μm 210Po film combined with a 20-μm aluminum film was able to generate an average thrust of 29.5 nN/cm2 in half-life time. The remaining charges and thermal energies of the decay films were considered. Directional-generated alpha particles were simulated to analyze the influence of angular scattering on escaped alpha-particle distributions. Alpha particles with low energy, with large scattering angles, or with large generated angles contributed less to thrust value. With the assumptions of no scattering, constant stopping power, and no range struggling, a set of analytic formulas were derived. Comparisons of the distributions and typical parameters between simulations and the analytic model were conducted. Discrepancies were mostly caused by the three assumptions and were less than 3.7% for thrust and less than 3.9% for the proportion of escaped alpha-particles.