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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.
Myron F. Elgart, Harmon L. Finston, Robert Rundberg, Evan T. Williams, Albert H. Bond, Jr., Emmanuel Yellin
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 58 | Number 3 | November 1975 | Pages 291-297
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE75-A26778
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We describe a simple method for determining the neutron-absorption cross sections of radioactive nuclides and its application to 22Na and 126I. These nuclides are produced by fast-neutron reactions in cadmium-wrapped and unshielded samples simultaneously irradiated with cobalt flux wires. Values for the thermal cross section, σ0, the resonance integral, Σ′, and s0 are calculated from the data using the Westcott convention. The results are as follows: for 22Na, σ0 = (5.11 ± 0.31) × 104 b, s0 = 2.3 ± 0.1, and Σ′ = (1.0 ± 0.1) × 105 b; for 126I, σ0 = (9.0 ± 5.0) × 103 b.
