ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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. Tokuzawa, K. Kawahata, Y. Nagayama, S. Inagaki, P. C. De Vries, A. Mase, Y. Kogi, Y. Yokota, H. Hojo, K. Tanaka, A. Ejiri, R. O. Pavlichenko, S. Yamaguchi, T. Yoshinaga, D. Kuwahara, Z. Shi, H. Tsuchiya, Y. Ito, S. Hirokura, S. Sudo, A. Komori, LHD Experiment Group
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 58 | Number 1 | July-August 2010 | Pages 364-374
Chapter 8. Diagnostics | Special Issue on Large Helical Device (LHD) | doi.org/10.13182/FST10-A10822
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Several types of microwave diagnostics, in the category of electron cyclotron emission (ECE) spectroscopy and reflectometry, have been developed on the Large Helical Device (LHD). Since LHD has a complicated magnetic configuration, the polarization effects have been studied for optimization of the microwave passive and active diagnostics. It was found that if the density is sufficiently high, the effect of mode conversion is negligible and the local polarization angle can be estimated as the angle at the plasma boundary. Three types of ECE spectroscopy, which are the heterodyne radiometer, the Michelson spectrometer, and the grating polychromator, have been optimized and operated routinely in order to measure radial profiles of electron temperature and its fluctuations in the frequency range 50 to 500 GHz. Several types of microwave reflectometers have also been utilized for measurements of the electron density profile and fluctuations. Two ultrashort pulsed radar reflectometers for density profile measurements, a V-band frequency-hopping reflectometer for density fluctuation profile measurements, and a fixed-frequency three-channel homodyne reflectometer for the interlock system of the neutral beam injection have been routinely operated. Also, an advanced diagnostic, which uses an imaging technique, has been developed to study the two- or three-dimensional structure of temperature and density fluctuations.