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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.
Lynn E. Weaver, Robert E. Vanasse
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 29 | Number 2 | August 1967 | Pages 264-271
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE67-A18536
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents an approach to reactor control that is a result of modern control theory, and is based on the control philosophy of feeding back all the state variables through constant gain elements. The values of these elements or feedback coefficients depend upon the desired system dynamics which is specified in terms of the system transfer function. Through state variable feedback design, the desired system dynamics can be realized exactly. Simulation studies have shown that, for the models considered, the sensitivity of parameter variations with respect to system dynamics was relatively low. Since this method depends on feeding back all the system variables, it is particularly amenable to the control of multiregion reactors. With the recent emphasis on spatial kinetics, this method of reactor control is the logical next step. Consideration is given to the case when all the state or system variables are not available for measurement.