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Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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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.
G. J. Zeman, D. L. Smith
Nuclear Technology | Volume 42 | Number 1 | January 1979 | Pages 82-89
Technical Paper | Material | doi.org/10.13182/NT79-A32164
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fatigue tests were conducted in sodium to investigate the influence of an elevated temperature sodium environment on the low cycle fatigue behavior of Types 304 and 316 stainless steel The fatigue tests were conducted at 550°C in sodium of controlled purity, namely, 1 ppm oxygen and 0.3 ppm carbon, at a strain rate of 4 × 10−3s−1. The fatigue life of annealed Type 316 stainless steel was substantially greater when tested in sodium than when tested in air, whereas the test environment had little influence on the fatigue life of Type 304 stainless steel. The effects of long-term sodium preexposure were also investigated. An 18-Ms (5000-h) preexposure to sodium produced little effect on the fatigue life of Type 316 stainless steel tested in sodium. However, a similar sodium exposure had a significant effect on the fatigue behavior of Type 304 stainless steel.
