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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.
E. D. Gospodchikov, O. B. Smolyakova, E. V. Suvorov
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 1 | January 2005 | Pages 252-254
Technical Paper | Open Magnetic Systems for Plasma Confinement | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A654
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The ray-tracing procedure for modeling the power deposition into electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) discharge in an axisymmetric mirror trap with longitudinal launch of microwave power is presented. To deal with cyclotron absorption for normal waves of magnetized plasma propagating nearly along the magnetic field in the vicinity of electron cyclotron frequency approximate dispersion relation has been derived using Stix components for microwave electric field. Calculations have been performed for parameters corresponding to ECR multicharge ion (MCI) source (IAP RAS) as example. It is shown that the efficient power deposition into ECR discharge within single pass of radiation through the plasma column may be provided under conditions that parasitic cyclotron resonance (before the plug) is outside the plasma volume and the electron density in the vicinity of the main resonance is undercritical. This is in a qualitative agreement with experimental results.