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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.
12th Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT 2021)
Technical Session|Panel
Tuesday, June 15, 2021|4:30–6:15PM EDT
Session Chair:
Sacit M. Cetiner (INL)
Session Organizer:
Alternate Chair:
Pradeep Ramuhalli (ORNL)
Staff Producer:
Jay Bogardus (ANS)
The TCR program is working towards establishing and maturing the processes and procedures for adoption of additive manufacturing (AM) in the design and fabrication of nuclear structures, systems and components through a demonstration. A helium-cooled 3-MWt microreactor, TCR pushes the boundaries of complexity of core fuel and flow-channel geometries enabled by the AM in order to boost operational efficiencies. In this special panel session, experts from the TCR program will present the approach and progress on the TCR instrumentation and control (I&C) system.
Pradeep Ramuhalli
ORNL
Sacit Cetiner
Idaho National Laboratory/Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Nathan See
Chris Petrie
Venu Varma
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