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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.
Liu Xiaobo, Peng Xianjue, Lei Jiarong, Fan Xiaoqiang, Du Jinfeng, Gao Hui
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 181 | Number 1 | September 2015 | Pages 96-104
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE14-100
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Based on a new experimental method implemented for validating neutron initiation probability, a set of burst initiation probability experiments (128 bursts) that were initiated by simultaneously injecting pulsed neutrons just as the reactor achieves the prompt supercritical state of 0.042 $ has been carried out at the CFBR-II (Chinese Fast Burst Reactor–II). The experimental configuration and procedures remained the same throughout the entire set of experiments. Based on the measured data, each burst was tallied by judging whether or not the burst was initiated by the pulsed neutrons. With the injection of pulsed neutrons (the equivalent strength of the neutrons is 1230), the tallies of the burst initiated by pulsed neutrons were 44, and hence, the experimental result of initiation probability is 0.344, which is 27% more than the theoretical calculation result of 0.271. Some factors that influence the experimental results are discussed. The discrepancy is attributed mainly to neutrons that are scattered and returned from the environment during the injection of pulsed neutrons and the statistical deviation.