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Fusion Science and Technology
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On moving fast and breaking things
Craig Piercycpiercy@ans.org
So much of what is happening in federal nuclear policy these days seems driven by a common approach popularized in the technology sector. Silicon Valley calls it “move fast and break things,” a phrase originally associated with Facebook’s early culture under Mark Zuckerberg. The idea emerged in the early 2000s as software companies discovered that rapid iteration, frequent experimentation, and a willingness to tolerate failure could dramatically accelerate innovation. This philosophy helped drive the growth of the social media, smartphones, cloud computing, and digital platforms that now underpin modern economic and social life.
Today, that mindset is also influencing federal nuclear policy. The Trump administration views accelerated nuclear deployment as part of a broader competition with China for technological and AI leadership. In that context, it seems willing to accept greater operational risk in pursuit of strategic advantage and long-term economic and security objectives.
V. E. Zapevalov
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 2 | August 2007 | Pages 340-344
Technical Paper | Electron Cyclotron Wave Physics, Technology, and Applications - Part 1 | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1512
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Until recently, the development of new gyrotrons was directed mainly at the increase of their operating frequency, power, and efficiency. The output power of modern continuous-wave (cw) gyrotrons has reached 1 MW, and there is a clear tendency to increase this power further to at least up to 1.5 to 2 MW. The efficiency of the best gyrotron tubes reaches 40% without recovering the residual energy of the spent electron beam [collector potential depression (CPD)] in the continuous regimes and 50% in the pulsed one and achieves 50% with one-step CPD in the cw regimes and near 70% in the pulsed regimes. We analyze limitations of the gyrotron output power and efficiency imposed by systems forming helical electron beams, the cavity interaction processes, the transmitting capability of the output window, and the losses of stray radiation in the built-in converter and power dissipation on the collector (including CPD). Some specific examples in applying the different limits to real cases of gyrotrons are discussed. Ways to enhance the power and efficiency of gyrotrons based on the results of this analysis are shown.