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Fusion Science and Technology
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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.
S. Kasai, K. Kamiya, K. Shinohara, H. Kawashima, H. Ogawa, K. Uehara, Y. Miura, F. Okano, S. Suzuki, K. Hoshino, K. Tsuzuki, M. Sato, K. Oasa, Y. Kusama, T. Yamauchi, Y. Nagashima, K. Ida, S. Hidekuma, T. Ido, Y. Hamada, A. Nishizawa, Y. Kawasumi, Y. Uesugi, S. Okajima, K. Kawahata, A. Ejiri, H. Amemiya, Y. Sadamoto
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 2 | February 2006 | Pages 225-240
Technical Paper | JFT-2M Tokamak | doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1097
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The diagnostic system of JFT-2M has consisted of about 30 individual diagnostic instruments, which were used to study plasma production, control, equilibrium, stability, confinement, plasma heating by neutral beam injection and/or by radio-frequency (rf) (lower hybrid, ion cyclotron resonance frequency, electron cyclotron heating), and current drive by rf. In these instruments, the motional Stark effect polarimeter, charge-exchange recombination spectroscopy, heavy ion beam probe, time-of-flight neutral particle analyzer, etc., have helped in further understanding the improved mechanism of confinement such as H-mode and high-recycling-steady H-mode, and operational regimes of these modes. An infrared television camera system and a lost ion probe have played a very important role in investigating the heat load on the walls due to ripple lost particles and escaping ions from the core plasma region, respectively.