Safety, Security, & Safeguards
Our Alternative Visions workshop in May 2019 confirmed that nuclear governance remains a key interest of foundations and policymakers. We are actively engaged in the following three research avenues related to the national security implications of nuclear energy, primarily in the United States, but also connected to, and entangled with, the international context. Much of this work is oriented around the nexus between military and civilian nuclear realms
Patrick Roberts is working on a project on the lessons of nuclear history for regulating artificial intelligence weaponry and industry. This project draws on ideas from the nuclear cultures workshop and may berelevant to foundations interested in security and defense work, including the Macarthur Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation of New York. Roberts has already authored a short think piece for War on the Rocks, in which he proposes that the DOD establish a Blue Ribbon Commission on regulating AI for military uses.
Sonja Schmid and Taylor Loy will focus on one aspect of the nuclear supply chain that connects civilian and military domains: tritium. Essential for maintaining nuclear warheads in launch-ready state, this material is currently produced in civilian reactors. This process requires crossing the “firewall” between the military and the civilian nuclear programs in the United States. It also raises compelling questions for the nuclear supply chain, e.g. whether a civilian nuclear program is needed (only, or mainly) to keep the nuclear weapons program functioning, and follows directly from problems discussed at the Alternative Visions Workshop. Schmid and Loy plan to present this work at an ANS meeting and an STS conference, and co-author a research paper and a policy brief on this topic.
Paul Avey examines whether, and if so how, public opinion on civilian nuclear energy programs shaped alliance dynamics in the context of foreign-deployed nuclear weapons. Specifically, he assessing whether European deployments of U.S. nuclear weapons have strained alliance ties as leaders navigated competing domestic and international pressures. Avey evaluates public opinion data collected by sources such as Eurobarometer, Pew, etc. since the 1950s, as well as an in-depth case study of the Euromissile crisis that began in 1979 and culminated in the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Avey’s project will result in at least two conference papers and an article submitted to a scholarly journal such as International Security or International Studies Quarterly. Given the recent U.S. decision to leave the INF treaty in the wake of Russian violations, Avey anticipates adapting a version for a more policy-oriented outlet.