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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. X. Bruce Qu, Thomas E. Blue, C. K. Chris Wang, Reinhard A. Gahbauer
Nuclear Technology | Volume 91 | Number 3 | September 1990 | Pages 404-412
Technical Paper | Radioisotopes and Isotope Separation | doi.org/10.13182/NT90-A34461
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Previously, a neutronic study of an accelerator-based epithermal neutron irradiation facility (AENIF) for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) was performed using three-dimensional Monte Carlo transport calculations. The major components of the AENIF are a radio-frequency quadrupole proton accelerator, a 7Li target, and a moderator assembly. Neutrons are generated by bombarding the 7Li target with 2.5-MeV protons. The neutrons emerging from the 7Li target are too energetic to be used for BNCT and are moderated as they traverse the moderator assembly to the patient. The design of a moderator assembly for an AENIF for the treatment of glioblastoma is reviewed, and this design is compared with the design of a moderator as sembly for an accelerator thermal neutron irradiation facility (A TNIF) for the treatment of superficial melanoma. The ATNIF moderator assembly consists of a 50-cm-high × 30-cm-diam cylinder of D2O, surrounded on its top and sides by a 40-cm-thick graphite reflector. This moderator assembly creates, at the surface of a large phantom at its irradiation port, a boron absorbed dose rate of (3.2 ± 0.2) cGy/(min · mA), for a tumor 10B concentration of 24 µg of10B per gram of tissue. For a single-session dose equivalent of 40 Sv to the tumor, the treatment time is 13 min for a 30-mA proton beam. With different moderator assemblies, a 30-mA, 2.5-MeV proton accelerator can be used to treat both superficial and deep lesions from melanomas and gliomas.
