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.
Taro Ueki
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 194 | Number 6 | June 2020 | Pages 422-432
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2019.1710418
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the Monte Carlo method for criticality calculation, the convergence-in-distribution check of the sample mean of tallies can be approached in terms of the influence range of autocorrelation compared to the total number of generations iterated. In this context, it is necessary to evaluate the attenuation of autocorrelation coefficients (ACCs) over lags. However, in just one replica of calculation, it is difficult to accurately estimate small ACCs at large lags because of the comparability with statistical uncertainty. This paper proposes a method to overcome such an issue. Its essential component is the transformation of a standardized time series of tallies so that the resulting series asymptotically converges in distribution to Brownian motion. The convergence-in-distribution check is then constructed based on the independent increment property of Brownian motion. The judgment criterion is set by way of the spectral analysis of fractional Brownian motion. Numerical results are demonstrated for extreme and standard types of criticality calculation and different numbers of histories per generation. Excellent performance is observed for most replicas of calculation. An issue related to small numbers of generations is addressed for strongly autocorrelated tallies in the extreme type.