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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.
T. Hayashi, T. Suzuki, S. Konishi, T. Yamanishi, M. Nishi, K. Kurita
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 41 | Number 3 | May 2002 | Pages 801-804
Hydride and Storage | Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology Tsukuba, Japan November 12-16, 2001 | doi.org/10.13182/FST02-A22695
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Assuming a practical use in ITER facility, rapid recovery and supply of tritium to accommodate pulsed plasma operation cycle with minimal inventory was tested. For this purpose, tritium will be supplied from heated bed with vacuum pump while heat of reaction is supplied externally. For recovery, hydriding reaction occurs at elevated temperature spontaneously. Kinetic behavior of the bed at the temperature around 300 degree-C was studied, and practical operation was successfully demonstrated. Isotopic composition change due to the difference of equilibrium temperature was concerned in supplying mixture, but the effect was found to be negligible. For rapid accountancy, ITER requirement of accuracy (± 1%) was demonstrated by 25 g tritium storage ZrCo bed with “In-bed” gas flowing calorimetry. It was revealed that the accuracy is affected by the surrounding temperature, that could readily be controlled for better measurement. Thus technology and experience on storage and transport of large amount of tritium, that are inevitable in fusion tritium facility such as ITER Tritium Plant have been established by Japanese research facility and industry.