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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.
Andrew C. Kauffman, Don W. Miller, Thomas D. Radcliff, Keith W. Maupin, Daniel J. Mills, V. Matthew Penrod
Nuclear Technology | Volume 140 | Number 2 | November 2002 | Pages 222-232
Technical Paper | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technologies | doi.org/10.13182/NT02-A3335
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An in-reactor test facility has been designed and built at The Ohio State University Research Reactor to evaluate the static and dynamic performance of nuclear reactor in-core sensors in environmental and neutronic conditions comparable to those expected in a high-temperature gas reactor. The primary objective for design and construction of this facility was to evaluate the performance of prototype constant-temperature power sensors. The facility can test sensors and materials over a wide range of temperatures up to 800°C, over a range of Reynolds numbers that can be varied to evaluate thermal-dynamic response, and at a reasonable neutron flux value that can be oscillated nearly 7% (up to 100 Hz eventually) to deterministically evaluate sensor transfer functions. Testing has demonstrated that this facility safely performs its desired functions with the current limitation of a 50-Hz maximum neutron flux oscillation speed.