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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.
Eugen Wild, Klaus J. Mack
Nuclear Technology | Volume 42 | Number 2 | February 1979 | Pages 216-223
Technical Paper | Thorium Fuel Cycle in a Breeder Economy / Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT79-A32152
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The friction and wear behavior of various material combinations was studied in a liquid-sodium loop up to fluid temperatures of 900 K to guarantee selfalignment and safe operation of liquid-metal-cooled fast breeder reactor (LMFBR) components, such as subassemblies, control and shutdown units, instruments, and centering pads. Pin-on-disk, plate-on-plate, and tilting plane test section systems were used. Numerous material combinations exhibiting good corrosion resistances in liquid sodium were investigated under identical operating conditions. Those revealing the lowest wear rates and the lowest friction coefficients were subject to parameter tests. The influences on friction and wear behavior of friction velocity, contact force, sodium temperature, equipment criteria, and tribochemistry were studied. The experimental results are shown for a Stellite 6-Stellite 6 combination. They revealed friction and wear coefficients to be clearly below the set limits. However, this material combination has a high cobalt content and is therefore no optimum choice with respect to contamination problems of the primary system of an LMFBR. Other experiments are necessary to develop materials with zero contamination effects.