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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.
Luke J. Kersting, Alex Robinson, Eli Moll, Philip Britt, Lewis Gross, Douglass Henderson
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 194 | Number 5 | May 2020 | Pages 350-372
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2019.1701344
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new single scattering adjoint transport capability was implemented in Framework for REsearch in Nuclear ScIence and Engineering (FRENSIE). The Evaluated Electron Data Library (EEDL) was used to generate new tabulated adjoint data. All adjoint data were generated using refined EEDL data and a unit-base grid policy. Verification and validation tests were performed for the adjoint electron transport in FRENSIE. Adjoint simulation results were compared with forward simulation results for a self-adjoint infinite medium problem as well as experimental results for electron low-energy backscattering coefficients. Only a refined unit-base grid policy and coupled elastic scattering were tested for adjoint tests. The adjoint transport capability shows good agreement with the forward transport capability. The adjoint atomic excitation physics were unable to model a discrete forward source. For the self-adjoint infinite medium problems, the adjoint results matched the forward results to within 2% except near the cutoff energy. For backscattering coefficients, the adjoint results matched the forward results to within 5% for all converged bins. Overall, the adjoint transport capability was in good agreement with the forward transport capability validating the adjoint transport scheme.