Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction

Physicists Coalition Colloquium - MIT Laboratory for Nuclear Science (LNS)
2023-10-30 16:00 - 17:30 (America/New_York)
Abstract
The immense risks nuclear weapons pose to all humanity are still very much with us. The destructive power in the thousands of nuclear weapons in existence threaten human civilization as we know it. In fact, trends indicate the risks are acute and growing: hard-won arms control agreements are being abandoned, nuclear weapons-possessing states are spending enormous resources to refurbish existing nuclear weapons and to develop new types of strategic weapons, and nuclear-armed nations continue to be drawn closer to direct conflict. Many communities continue to bear the damaging health effects of nuclear weapons testing and production. Physicists have historically constructively engaged policymakers and their communities to help reduce nuclear dangers. Leo Szilard took this role very seriously and pioneered innovative ways to make policy change and work toward a safer world. This talk will set the context of the current nuclear crisis and discuss effective ways that physicists today can get involved in mitigating nuclear risks and creating a healthier and safer future
About the Speaker
Dr. Laura Grego is a senior scientist and the research director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, where she has worked at the intersection of science and public policy, in particular nuclear weapons, missile defense, and space security issues, for twenty years. She recently completed a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellowship at the Laboratory for Nuclear Security and Policy at MIT. She received her PhD. in experimental physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1999, and BSc. degrees in physics and astronomy from the University of Michigan in 1992.
She has authored numerous articles and reports on security issues, and frequently gives talks to expert and non-expert audiences and serves as a subject matter expert for the media. She meets regularly with U.S. government staff and officials and international diplomats to provide scientific information and advocate for better policies for a healthy, safe, sustainable future.
Grego serves on American Physical Society’s Panel on Public Affairs as the representative of the Forum on Physics and Society. She supports efforts to engage scientists more substantially in nuclear policy issues, including serving on the steering committee of the APS’s Innovation Grantee project the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction and is a recipient of the 2023 APS Leo Szilard Lectureship Award. She is an associate editor for the journal Science and Global Security, and a 2021 Fellow of the APS.
This is a hybrid event, available to both in-person and virtual attendance.
Virtual attendance is accessible via Zoom.

Physicists Coalition Colloquium – University of Hawaiʻi
2023-10-12 15:30 - 17:00 (Pacific/Honolulu)
About the Speaker
Dr. Robert Goldston is a professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University and associated faculty with Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security. His research interests include neutron-based methods to verify warheads for disarmament, non-invasive UF6 flow meters and neutron detectors to verify operation of gas-centrifuge enrichment plants, and robotic techniques to monitor areas for undeclared nuclear materials and activities. He serves on the Board of the Council for a Livable World and writes policy pieces for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
An abstract for this colloquium will be shared soon.
This is a virtual event.

North Carolina A&T University - The Growing Danger of Nuclear Weapons
2023-10-04 16:00 - 17:30 (America/New_York) | Marteena Hall Room 310
Colloquium Abstract
The world is in a precarious place right now and nuclear risk is higher than it has been in decades. The war in Ukraine has brought latent fears about nuclear war back to the surface. In recent years, the US has withdrawn from several arms control agreements that constrained US and Russian arsenals, and the last remaining treaty with Russia expires in 2026. Both the US and Russia are engaged in building a new generation of nuclear weapons. Physicists were, and still are, key actors in our nation’s nuclear weapons enterprise. From the very beginning of the nuclear weapons story, physicists have engaged policymakers about nuclear dangers and advocated for policies to reduce them. Given the growing risks, physicists need to renew their role in educating the public and policymakers.
About the Speaker
Dr. Tara Drozdenko is the director for the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists working on the federal-level policy changes and commitment to diplomacy, so the United States is a leader in reducing the nuclear threat.
Dr. Drozdenko brings nearly two decades of experience in the national security field, managing complex government programs, supervising research teams, and communicating with the public about climate change and nuclear weapons. She has worked on issues related to weapons of mass destruction for both the U.S. Navy and U.S. State Department. While at the State Department, Drozdenko spent several years working on missile defense and arms control issues, including representing the U.S. at the Senior Group on Proliferation at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Most recently, she served as acting executive director of Outrider Foundation, a nonprofit digital media organization focused on ending the threat of nuclear war and reversing the course of global climate change. In that role, she set the vision for the organization, working to integrate Outrider’s messaging on climate and nuclear issues. She also brought a focus on racial justice to the organization. Before leading the organization, Drozdenko served as Outrider’s managing director for nuclear policy, producing innovative media for public education and advocacy on nuclear weapons.
Drozdenko also co-founded Highly NRiched, an open-access platform helping educators incorporate lessons about nuclear weapons into their classroom. She was chief of the Country/Regime Sanctions Unit at the U.S. Department of Treasury from 2008 to 2012, where she managed more than 20 of the U.S. government’s economic sanctions programs, including portions of the Iran and North Korea sanctions.
Drozdenko served in the U.S. State Department Office of Counterterrorism from 2006 to 2008 and as a physical scientist in the Bureau of Arms Control from 2003 to 2006. Drozdenko has a Bachelor of Science and Ph.D. in plasma physics from the University of California – Los Angeles.
This event is accessible for attendance via Zoom.

Kenyon College - Oppenheimer, the Dangers of Nuclear War Today, and How Physicists Can Help Reduce Them
2023-09-29 12:10 - 13:30 (America/New_York)
Abstract
The film Oppenheimer barely hints at the debate among the Manhattan Project physicists on “the impact of the Gadget on Civilization” and their efforts to influence the decision on using nuclear weapons against Japan. It also does not explain that Oppenheimer’s “trial” and termination as a government advisor was due to his opposition to developing the H bomb because it would carry “much further than the atomic bomb itself the policy of exterminating civilian populations.” During the Cold War, physicists worked for policies to reduce the danger. Despite near misses, no additional cities have shared the fates of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now, with Russian President Vladimir Putin making nuclear threats against NATO, and China and the US in a growing confrontation over Taiwan, physicists are mobilizing against a new nuclear arms race and to advocate policies such as no first nuclear use.
About the Speaker
Dr. Frank N. von Hippel, a theoretical particle physicist by training, is a Senior Research Physicist and Professor of Public and International Affairs emeritus at Princeton University. He co-founded Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security, the International Panel on Fissile Materials, and the Physicist’s Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction. During the 1980s, he worked with Soviet physicists advising Mikhail Gorbachev on initiatives to end the nuclear arms race and the Cold War. During 1993-4, he worked in the White House Office of Science and Technology on nuclear policy issues including improving the security of Russia’s fissile materials, partnering with Russia on a global effort to convert research reactors from weapon-grade to low-enriched uranium fuel, and disposing of the plutonium from excess Cold War warheads.
This is a virtual event, live attendance is exclusive to students at Kenyon College.

Yale University - Walking the World Back from the Nuclear Brink: What can Scientists do?
2023-09-28 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Sloane Physics Lab, Room 59 217 Prospect St, New Haven
Abstract
Despite shrinking significantly at the end of the Cold War, the world nuclear weapon arsenals continue to represent a significant threat to humanity. About 14,000 nuclear weapons are still deployed or in reserve and other 700 intercontinental ballistic missiles are ready to be launched within minutes. Recent trends indicate the risks of nuclear war may be growing with the return of great power confrontation, the modernization of existing arsenals, the abandonment of arms control agreements, the development of new types of strategic weapons, the rapid militarization of emerging technologies, and the increasing entanglement of conventional and nuclear forces. This talk will present the current nuclear crisis, discuss possible approaches to walk back from the brink, and make suggestions on what physicists can do both as scientists and informed citizens to reduce the dangers of nuclear war.
About the Speaker
Dr. Sébastien Philippe is a Research Scholar with Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security, part of the School of Public and International Affairs. His work at the nexus of technical and policy research focuses on developing new methods and technologies for managing and monitoring nuclear weapons, materials, and activities as well as modeling the effects of nuclear explosion on people and planet.
His work on the reconstruction of fallout from past nuclear weapon tests, including Trinity, has been covered in major media around the world. His book, Toxique (2021), on the legacy of French nuclear tests in the Pacific was a Finalist for the 2021 Albert Londres Prize (the French equivalent of the Pulitzer) and won a 2022 Sigma Award for best data journalism in the world, among other accolades.
Philippe holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton, was a Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral fellow at Harvard, and has served as a nuclear weapon system safety engineer in France’s Ministry of Armed Forces. In 2023, he was appointed as a member of the Scientific Advisory Group of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
This event can be attended by the public through this zoom link.

How to Avert the Coming Arms Race - University of Hawai'i
2023-09-14
Abstract
The United States, Russia, and China are engaged in the early phases of a new nuclear arms race, while Russia and NATO are engaged in a nuclear-tinged war in Ukraine. With the recent shredding of arms-control agreements, a three-way arms race may proceed unfettered and could lead to unprecedented dangers to humanity. On the other hand, a new discussion on strategic stability is possible, which could lead both to reining in the arms races with Russia and China and the basis for a settlement in Ukraine. As scientists we are obliged to understand the dynamics of the arms races and their dangers, and to develop and support means to avert the rush to oblivion. Please consider joining the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction: PhysicistsCoalition.org/join
About the Speaker
Dr. Robert Goldston is a professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University and associated faculty with Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security. His research interests include neutron-based methods to verify warheads for disarmament, non-invasive UF6 flow meters and neutron detectors to verify operation of gas-centrifuge enrichment plants, and robotic techniques to monitor areas for undeclared nuclear materials and activities. He serves on the Board of the Council for a Livable World and writes policy pieces for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
This is a virtual event.

Pennsylvania State University - How to Avert the Coming Arms Race
2023-09-07 16:00 (America/New_York) | Hallowell Building: Department of Nuclear Engineering
Abstract
The United States, Russia, and China are engaged in the early phases of a new nuclear arms race and Russia and NATO are engaged in a nuclear-tinged war in Ukraine. With the recent shredding of arms-control agreements, the arms races may proceed unfettered and could lead to unprecedented dangers to humanity. On the other hand, new bilateral dialogs on strategic stability are possible, which could lead both to reining in the arms races with Russia and China and the basis for a settlement in Ukraine. As scientists we are obliged to understand the dynamics of the arms races and their dangers, and to develop and support means to avert the rush to oblivion.
About the Speaker
Dr. Robert Goldston is a professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University and associated faculty with Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security. His research interests include neutron-based methods to verify warheads for disarmament, non-invasive UF6 flow meters and neutron detectors to verify operation of gas-centrifuge enrichment plants, and robotic techniques to monitor areas for undeclared nuclear materials and activities. He serves on the Board of the Council for a Livable World and writes policy pieces for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
This event can be attended by the public through this zoom link (Password: [REDACTED]

Oppenheimer: Scientists, The Bomb, and the Implications for Today
2023-07-31 16:00 - 17:30 (America/New_York)
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The film Oppenheimer, which opened in theaters in July, tells the story of American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer who led the team that built the first atomic bomb, and later worked to curb the nuclear arms race. The scientific community has played a critical role in highlighting the dangers of nuclear weapons and their human and environmental impacts, as well as nuclear arms racing from the days of the Manhattan Project to the present. Prompted by the film, the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction held a webinar on July 31, 2023, to discuss:

The devastating human and environmental consequences of nuclear weapons testing and use
The role of scientists in the effort to halt the spread of nuclear weapons and reverse the nuclear arms race
The growing nuclear threat and how physicists can help reduce the danger today

Speakers included

Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER), co-author of Radioactive Heaven and Earth and Nuclear Wastelands
Dr. Lisbeth Gronlund, Research Affiliate, Laboratory for Nuclear Security and Policy, MIT
Dr. Stewart Prager, Professor Emeritus of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University; The Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction
Dr. Frederick Lamb (Moderator), Research Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; The Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction

This webinar was co-sponsored by
– The APS Forum on Physics and Society
– The APS Forum on International Physics
– The APS Forum on the History and Philosophy of Physics
REFERENCES AND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Recommended by Dr. Arjun Makhijiani:

Arjun Makhijiani, Webinar Presentation Slides (PowerPoint)
Arjun Makhijani, ““Always” the target?: While U.S. bomb scientists were racing against Germany, military planners were looking toward the Pacific,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May/June 1995
Arjun Makhijani. “Nuclear Targeting: The First 60 Years,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May/June 2003

Recommended by Dr. Lisbeth Gronlund:

“Countermeasures: A Technical Evaluation of the Operational Effectiveness of the Planned US National Missile Defense System,” Union of Concerned Scientists, April 18 2000
Richard L. Garwin and Hans A. Bethe, Anti-Ballistic-Missile Systems,” Scientific American, March 1968
JASON Panel, “Nuclear Testing: Summary and Conclusions,” August 3 1995
Kurt Gotfried, “Physicists in Politics,” Physics Today, 1999

Recommended by Dr. Stewart Prager:

General Advisory Committee’s Majority and Minority Reports on Building the H-Bomb , Atomic Archive, 1949.
Hans Kristensen and Robert Norris, Worldwide Deployments of Nuclear Weapons, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Sept 3, 2017
Alan Robock and Owen B. Toon, Self-assured Destruction: The Climate Impacts of Nuclear War,Vol.68, Issue 5, p. 66, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (2012).
Zia Mian, Stewart Prager and Frank von Hippel, Once More Into the Breach: Physicists Mobilize Again to Counter the Nuclear Threat, Arms Control Today, May, 2021.

U.S. Budget for FY24 and Advocacy for Nuclear Threat Reduction
2023-05-23 11:00 - 12:00 (America/New_York)
This webinar discusses highlights of the U.S. budget for nuclear weapons for fiscal year 2024, in particular the possibility of additional funds for new nuclear weapon systems including nuclear-capable sea-launched cruise missiles.
The speakers include
– Shannon Bugos, Senior Policy Analyst, The Arms Control Association
– Hans Kristensen, Director, Nuclear Information Project, Federation of American Scientists
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Shannon Bugos’ Presentation Slides (PowerPoint)
Hans Kristensen’s Presentation Slides (PDF)

Related:
Advocacy: Say no to new weapon systems!

Columbia University - Dismantling the Nuclear Doomsday Machine: Scientists, the Bomb, and the Challenges of Nuclear Disarmament
2023-04-10
Colloquium Abstract
Eighty years ago, physicists first worked out what it would take to build a simple nuclear weapon and the immediate effects of its use. Five years later, theory and experiment became devastating facts as the United States built, tested, and then used the first nuclear weapons to destroy cities. Today, there are nine nuclear armed states and over 13,000 nuclear weapons in the world. The nuclear-armed states are developing or modernizing their arsenals, easing constraints on when these weapons might be used, and pursue policies that risk accidental nuclear war. The hard-won international arrangements intended to halt, reverse and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons programs are unraveling. Russia’s leader has made nuclear threats in the context of the war against Ukraine. One potentially hopeful development, the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, has elicited opposition rather than support from the nine nuclear-armed states. This talk will look at what role scientists have played in the past and can play today in helping address the challenge of reducing and eliminating the threat from nuclear weapons in the United States and globally, it also will introduce the new Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction.
About the Speaker
Dr. Zia Mian is a physicist and co-director of Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security, part of the School of Public and International Affairs. His research interests include nuclear arms control, non-proliferation, disarmament, and policies for a safer and more peaceful world. He is co-editor of the journal Science & Global Security, co-chair of the International Panel on Fissile Materials, and a co-founder of the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction. He received the 2014 Linus Pauling Legacy Award, the American Physical Society’s 2019 Leo Szilard Award, and in 2021 he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He serves on the United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament, and on the boards of the Arms Control Association and of the Union of Concerned Scientists. He is a co-founder of the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction.

Virtual Training Session: Engaging Members of Congress on Nuclear Issues
2023-03-31 10:30 - 12:00 (America/New_York)
On March 29, at 10:30 AM EDT, the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction hosted a virtual training session to discuss tools and skills for advocacy effective engagement with members of Congress.
This session included remarks by the panelists (recording below), followed by an open discussion between the Coalition’s experts and members.
Panelists:

Denise Duffield (The Back from the Brink Campaign)
Laura Grego (The Union of Concerned Scientists)
Sean Meyer (The Back from the Brink Campaign)
Stephen Young (The Union of Concerned Scientists)

Texas A&M University - The Continuing Risk of Nuclear War and How Physicists, Acting as Citizen-scientists, Can Help Reduce It
2023-03-29 | Texas A&M University
Colloquium Abstract
With the end of the Cold War, the public, activists and our government thought the danger from nuclear weapons was on a glide path to zero and those concerned about existential threats turned to other issues, notably global warming. Unfortunately, we were wrong. Russia has made nuclear threats to keep NATO from intervening against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and China has decided to greatly increase its nuclear forces in the face of a potential war with the United States over Taiwan. It is therefore necessary to educate ourselves anew about the dangers and policy options that could reduce them and then, for those of us with an activist inclination, to help more members of Congress understand the issues and the options. To this end, the American Physical Society helped launch a Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction that is now an independent organization with a membership of about one thousand that would welcome concerned nuclear engineers as well.
About the Speaker
Frank N. von Hippel, a theoretical particle physicist by training, is a Senior Research Physicist and Professor of Public and International Affairs emeritus at Princeton University. He co-founded Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security, the International Panel on Fissile Materials, and the Physicist’s Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction. During the 1980s, he worked with Soviet physicists advising Mikhail Gorbachev on initiatives to end the nuclear arms race and the Cold War. During 1993-4, he worked in the White House Office of Science and Technology on nuclear policy issues including improving the security of Russia’s fissile materials, partnering with Russia on a global effort to convert research reactors from weapon-grade to low-enriched uranium fuel, and disposing of the plutonium from excess Cold War warheads.

San Francisco State University- Global Famine after Nuclear War
2023-03-28
Colloquium Abstract
A nuclear war could inject so much smoke from the resulting fires into the stratosphere that the resulting climate change would be unprecedented in recorded human history. Our climate model simulations find that the smoke would absorb sunlight, making it dark, cold, and dry at Earth’s surface and produce global-scale ozone depletion, with enhanced ultraviolet radiation reaching the surface. The changes in temperature, precipitation, and sunlight from the climate model simulations, applied to crop models show that these perturbations would reduce global agricultural production of the major food crops for a decade. The direct effects on people of nuclear war would be horrific, with blast, fires, and radioactivity killing millions of people, but the indirect effects on the food supply could kill 15-20 times as many people. A war between India and Pakistan could kill 1 to 2 billion people from starvation, and a war between the U.S. and Russia could kill more than 5 billion people. My current research project, being conducted jointly with scientists from the University of Colorado, Columbia University, Louisiana State University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, is examining in detail, with city firestorm and global climate models, various possible scenarios of nuclear war and their impacts on agriculture and the world food supply. The greatest nuclear threat still comes from the United States and Russia. Even the reduced arsenals that remain in 2023 due to the New START Treaty threaten the world with nuclear winter. The world as we know it could end any day as a result of an accidental nuclear war between the United States and Russia. As a result of international negotiations pushed by civil society led by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), and referencing our work, the United Nations passed a Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons on July 7, 2017. On December 10, 2017, ICAN accepted the Nobel Peace Prize “for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons.” How soon will pressure from the 86 and counting nations who have ratified the nuclear ban treaty get the United States and the other eight nuclear nations to sign this treaty? The Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction is working to make that happen.
About the Speaker
Dr. Alan Robock is a distinguished professor of climate science in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers University, associate editor of the journal Reviews of Geophysics, a former Lead Author of the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and a former Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines, and has been researching the climatic and agricultural impacts of nuclear war for the past 40 years.

Georgia Institute of Technology - The Increasing Peril from Nuclear Arms: And How Physicists can Help Reduce the Threat
2023-03-27
Colloquium Abstract
With geopolitical and technological changes driven by the nine nuclear weapons states, we are witnessing a new nuclear arms race and deterioration of the multi-decade arms control regime. This talk will overview basic information on nuclear arms, the current critical situation, feasible steps to reduce the nuclear threat, and a new project initiated by the American Physical Society to engage physical scientists in advocacy for nuclear threat reduction.
About the Speaker
Stewart Prager is professor emeritus of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University, an affiliated faculty with the Program on Science and Global Security, a co-founder of the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction, and former director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Previously, while professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, he directed the Madison Symmetric Torus experiment and the Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas. His research has been in plasma physics and fusion energy, although his recent focus is on nuclear threat reduction.

Brigham Young University – The Increasing Peril from Nuclear Arms (and How Physicists Can Help Reduce the Threat)
2023-03-24 | Brigham Young University
Colloquium Abstract
With geopolitical and technological changes driven by the nine nuclear weapons states, we are witnessing a new nuclear arms race and deterioration of the multi-decade arms control regime. This talk will overview basic information on nuclear arms, the current critical situation, feasible steps to reduce the nuclear threat, and a new project to engage physical scientists in advocacy for nuclear threat reduction.
About the Speaker
Stewart Prager is professor emeritus of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University, an affiliated faculty with the Program on Science and Global Security, a co-founder of the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction, and former director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Previously, while professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, he directed the Madison Symmetric Torus experiment and the Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas. His research has been in plasma physics and fusion energy, although his recent focus is on nuclear threat reduction.

Georgetown University - The Growing Danger of Nuclear Weapons (and How Physicists Can Help Reduce It)
2023-03-21
Colloquium Abstract
While nuclear weapons might sound like Cold War relics, in truth the immense risks they pose to all humanity are still very much with us. In fact, trends indicate the risks may be growing with the abandonment of arms control agreements and the development of new types of strategic weapons. Physicists have historically constructively engaged policymakers and their communities to help reduce nuclear dangers. This talk will explain the current nuclear crisis, provide feasible remedies, and introduce a new project created to help physicists once again get involved.
About the Speaker
Dr. Laura Grego is a senior scientist and the research director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, where she has worked at the intersection of science and public policy, in particular nuclear weapons, missile defense, and space security issues, for twenty years. She recently completed a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellowship at the Laboratory for Nuclear Security and Policy at MIT. Dr. Grego serves on the American Physical Society’s (APS) Panel on Public Affairs as the representative of the Forum on Physics and Society and serves on the steering committee of the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction. She is an associate editor for the journal Science and Global Security, and a 2021 Fellow of the APS and a recipient of the 2022 APS Leo Szilard Award. Dr. Grego focuses her analysis and advocacy on missile defense, outer space security, and nuclear weapons. She has authored or co-authored numerous papers on a range of topics, including cosmology, space security, and missile defense, and has testified before Congress and addressed the UN General Assembly and the UN Conference on Disarmament on security issues. Before joining UCS, Dr. Grego was a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She earned a Ph.D. in experimental physics at the California Institute of Technology, and a B.S. in physics and astronomy at the University of Michigan.

Illinois State University – A Case Study in Nuclear Proliferation: The Iran Nuclear Deal and the Responsibility of Physicists
2023-03-21
Colloquium Abstract
The first nuclear weapon was tested in Alamogordo, NM, in July 1945. In the following month, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed through the explosion of two nuclear warheads. These horrifying strikes directly led to the surrender of Japan almost 4 years after its attack on Pearl Harbor. An industrial scale effort with more than 130,000 employees produced the first nuclear fission weapons during World War II. With the United States and its allies facing totalitarian aggressors in the European and Pacific theaters, many elite scientists, engineers, and technicians supported the Manhattan Project through their scientific and technological innovations. 75 years later, despite enormous international efforts to create an effective system of nuclear arms control agreements that seek to limit nuclear weapons technology to the initial nuclear powers, knowledge and technology have further proliferated. Today nine countries possess nuclear weapons.
Alarmingly important arms control treaties have been challenged also by leading nuclear weapon states: The United States and Russia have ended the Intermediate Nuclear Force Treaty. Failure in the negotiations for an extension of the New START treaty was avoided only at the last moment. The United States has withdrawn from the JCPOA (the Iran Nuclear Deal). Both the United States and Russia have withdrawn from the Open Skies Arms Control Treaty.
The colloquium will review possible consequences of nuclear war and nuclear terrorism and explain the system of arms control treaties that have been put into place to contain this threat over the past 70 years. We will briefly review challenges different arms control agreements have been facing in the recent past. Some focus will be placed on the Iran Nuclear Deal, an agreement that aims to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons to Iran. We will discuss the recent history, including the US withdrawal in 2018 and current efforts to re-negotiate the agreement.
About the Speaker
Professor Matthias Grosse Perdekamp is a nuclear physicist at the University of Illinois. He serves as head of the Department of Physics and as director of the UIUC Program for Arms Control and Domestic and International Security, ACDIS. He explores the Physics of nuclear forces and the structure of the fundamental building blocks of nuclear matter through accelerator-based experiments at European Laboratory for Nuclear and Particle Physics, CERN, in Geneva Switzerland. His laboratory is developing advanced instrumentation for the detection of ionizing radiation. He teaches a longstanding course on Nuclear War and Arms Control as part of the ACDIS security certificate for undergraduate students at UIUC.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - Global Famine after Nuclear War
2023-03-16

Ohio University - A Case Study in Nuclear Proliferation: The Iran Nuclear Deal and the Responsibility of Physicists
2023-03-10 | 25 South Green Drive, Athens, Ohio 45701, Water Hall 145
Colloquium Abstract
The first nuclear weapon was tested in Alamogordo, NM, in July 1945. In the following month, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed through the explosion of two nuclear warheads. These horrifying strikes directly led to the surrender of Japan almost 4 years after its attack on Pearl Harbor. An industrial scale effort with more than 130,000 employees produced the first nuclear fission weapons during World War II. With the United States and its allies facing totalitarian aggressors in the European and Pacific theaters, many elite scientists, engineers, and technicians supported the Manhattan Project through their scientific and technological innovations. 75 years later, despite enormous international efforts to create an effective system of nuclear arms control agreements that seek to limit nuclear weapons technology to the initial nuclear powers, knowledge and technology have further proliferated. Today nine countries possess nuclear weapons.
Alarmingly important arms control treaties have been challenged also by leading nuclear weapon states: The United States and Russia have ended the Intermediate Nuclear Force Treaty. Failure in the negotiations for an extension of the New START treaty was avoided only at the last moment. The United States has withdrawn from the JCPOA (the Iran Nuclear Deal). Both the United States and Russia have withdrawn from the Open Skies Arms Control Treaty.
The colloquium will review possible consequences of nuclear war and nuclear terrorism and explain the system of arms control treaties that have been put into place to contain this threat over the past 70 years. We will briefly review challenges different arms control agreements have been facing in the recent past. Some focus will be placed on the Iran Nuclear Deal, an agreement that aims to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons to Iran. We will discuss the recent history, including the US withdrawal in 2018 and current efforts to re-negotiate the agreement.
About the Speaker
Professor Matthias Grosse Perdekamp is a nuclear physicist at the University of Illinois. He serves as head of the Department of Physics and as director of the UIUC Program for Arms Control and Domestic and International Security, ACDIS. He explores the physics of nuclear forces and the structure of the fundamental building blocks of nuclear matter through accelerator-based experiments at European Laboratory for Nuclear and Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. His laboratory is developing advanced instrumentation for the detection of ionizing radiation. He teaches a longstanding course on Nuclear War and Arms Control as part of the ACDIS security certificate for undergraduate students at UIUC.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - Global Famine After Nuclear War
2023-03-08 | National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California

Virtual Discussion Session: U.S.-Russian Nuclear Arms Control Diplomacy
2023-03-03 12:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York)
To provide more context on the U.S.-Russia arms control and effective advocacy for nuclear threat reduction, we held a special meeting on March 3, 2023 for members of the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction. This session included remarks by the panelists (recording below), followed by an open discussion between the Coalition’s experts and members.

Speakers:

Daryl G. Kimball (Executive Director, The Arms Control Association)
Tara Drozdenko (Director of Global Security Program, The Union of Concerned Scientists)
Frank A. von Hippel (Senior Research Physicists and Professor Emeritus, Princeton University)

Indiana University Bloomington - Restraining the New Nuclear Arms Race: What Scientists and Engineers Can Do to Preserve Nuclear Arms Control
2023-01-18
Colloquium Abstract
We live in an increasingly dangerous nuclear world marked by the abandonment of hard-won arms-control and nonproliferation agreements; the modernization at a cost of trillions of dollars of existing nuclear arsenals; the development of new types of strategic weapons; and threats to use nuclear weapons that risk escalation to large-scale nuclear war. This talk highlights some current and emerging nuclear weapon issues and discusses examples of policy analysis and research where contributions from scientists and engineers could be particularly valuable and timely in advancing efforts to mitigate nuclear weapon risks. The talk also outlines the goals and work by the new Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction, which seeks to inform and mobilize the physics community on nuclear arms control and to offer avenues for scientists to take action in the years ahead.
About the Speaker
Alex Glaser is an associate professor in the School of Public and International Affairs and in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University. He is the co-director of Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security and serves on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board, which sets the hands of the Doomsday Clock. Foreign Policy named Glaser one of the 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2014 for his work on nuclear warhead verification. Glaser holds a PhD in Physics from Darmstadt University and is a fellow of the American Physical Society.

New Developments in International Treaties on Nuclear Weapons: the NPT and the TPNW
2022-11-14 13:00 - 14:30 (America/New_York)
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The 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), also known as the Nuclear Ban Treaty, went into force in January 2021. The treaty was negotiated with the purpose of strengthening the largely unimplemented disarmament pillar of the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The NPT has been signed by all but four nations. The Nuclear Ban Treaty has been signed by 91 nations and ratified by 68, none of which are nuclear weapon states. This August saw the completion of the tenth NPT review conference, a meeting held between the parties to the Treaty to review its progress. The conference exposed a rift between the nuclear weapon states and the non-nuclear weapon states on the lack of progress toward the NPT disarmament requirement. In this webinar, we will cover these recent developments, as well as the significance of, and the issue of compatibility between the NPT and TPNW.

Panelists

Zia Mian is a physicist and co-director of Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security. He made presentations at the August 2022 NPT Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference and at the first meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) in June.
Randy Rydell is a former Senior Political Affairs Officer for the UN’s High Representative for Disarmament Affairs and a staff member working on nonproliferation in the United States Senate. Since his retirement in 2014, he’s served as an Executive Advisor to Mayors for Peace, managed by the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation.
Ray Acheson has been providing analysis on arms control diplomacy at the United Nations and other international forums for over a decade as the head of Reaching Critical Will, the disarmament program at the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. They are currently a visiting researcher at Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security and a steering group member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

The Nuclear Dimensions of the War in Ukraine
2022-03-28
Our March 28, 2022 briefing examined Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the connection to nuclear weapons. Speakers included Alex Glaser (Princeton University), Daryl Kimball (Arms Control Association), Pavel Podvig (United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research – UNIDIR) and Laura Grego (MIT).

President Biden’s Nuclear Posture Review
2021-12-03
Our December 3, 2021 briefing discussed the current status of the Biden Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and unpacked the biggest outstanding controversies and questions. Speakers included Jessica Sleight (Global Zero), Tom Collina (Ploughshares Fund), Laura Grego (MIT), and Charlotte Selton (APS).

Nuclear Arms Racing
2021-09-13
Our September 13, 2021 webinar discussed the dynamics of a nuclear arms race between the US, Russia, and China. Speakers include Steve Fetter (University of Maryland, College Park), Laura Grego (Union of Concerned Scientists), Lyle Goldstein (Naval War College), and Pavel Podvig (United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research – UNIDIR).

The Real World Effects of Nuclear Weapons
2021-07-13
Our July 13, 2021 webinar examines the effects of nuclear weapons, including the immediate and direct effects, the impact on climate and food, and how government war planners understand these effects. Speakers include Steve Fetter (University of Maryland, College Park), Matthew McKinzie (Natural Resources Defense Council), Alan Robock (Rutger University), and Lynn Eden (Stanford University).

Influencing Government Policy on Nuclear Weapons
2021-06-10
Our June 10, 2021 webinar discussed how government policy for nuclear weapons is formed, aspects of the current political landscape for nuclear arms control, and current Coalition advocacy on no-first-use. Speakers include Laura Grego (Union of Concerned Scientists), Sharon Weiner (American University), Stephen Young (Union of Concerned Scientists), Stewart Prager (Princeton University), and Charlotte Selton (APS)

Measures to Reduce the Nuclear Threat Under the Biden Administration
2021-01-29
Our January 29th, 2021 webinar covers a range of policy topics including no-first-use, launch-on-warning, ICBM modernization, and presidential sole authority. Speakers include Prof. Angela Di Fulvio (University of Illinois), Prof. Steve Fetter (University of Maryland), Dr. Laura Grego (Union of the Concerned Scientists), Prof. Zia Mian (Princeton University), Prof. Stewart Prager (Princeton University), and Prof. Frank von Hippel (Princeton University).

Nuclear Testing and New START: Nuclear Threat Reduction in 2020 and Beyond
2020-09-09
Our September 9, 2020 panel discussion provides background on current nuclear policy topics and updates on relevant legislation. Panelists Prof. Steve Fetter (University of Maryland) and Prof. Frank Von Hippel (Princeton University) provide briefings on nuclear weapons testing and New START while Dr. Laura Grego (Union of Concerned Scientists) moderates a spirited Q&A session. Also featuring Prof. Stewart Prager (Princeton University), Dr. Sébastien Philippe (Princeton University), and Charlotte Selton (APS)
