NucleCast

Latest Episodes:

James Stemm - The National Museum of Nuclear Science & History Sep 21, 2023

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James Stemm has been Curator at the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History since 2021. He began his museum career in 1996 working with the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona as the museum’s Registrar. He remained at Pima for the next twenty-five years while holding several jobs in the museum’s Collections Department including Assistant Curator, Curator of Collections, and Director of Collections. James attended The University of New Mexico where he received a bachelor’s degree in history and attended graduate school at New Mexico State University receiving a master’s degree in public history.

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Frank Lowery - Rethinking Recruitment and Retaining Talent at the NNSA Sep 19, 2023

Show notes

Frank Lowery is the Associate Administrator for Management and Budget, National Nuclear Security Administration, where he oversees the offices of Budget and Financial Management, Human Resources, Business Services, Employee Empowerment, Learning and Career Management, and International Operations. A member of the Senior Executive Service in NNSA since March 2012, he has also served as the Department of Energy’s Acting Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer; NNSA’s Deputy Associate Administrator for Management; and Deputy Associate Administrator for Defense Nuclear Security. Prior to entering Federal service, he served in the U.S. Navy.

Mr. Lowery has over three decades of experience in national security, much of it associated with nuclear-powered submarines and nuclear weapons. His submarine experience includes service in the Atlanticand Pacific fleets on fast attack as well as strategic deterrent submarines.

A certified professional engineer, he developed specialized skills in technical, business, and personnel management through his integral involvement in submarine delivery programs and oversight of the 25 nuclear-powered fast attack submarines that operate in the Atlantic Fleet.

Mr. Lowery earned his bachelor of science degree in marine engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and his master’s degree in engineering management from Old Dominion University.

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Matthew Costlow, Ph.D. - Restraints at the Nuclear Brink: Factors in Keeping War Limited Sep 14, 2023

Show notes

Matthew Costlow is a Senior Analyst at the National Institute for Public Policy. His areas of expertise are in nuclear deterrence, missile defense policy, arms control, and Russian and Chinese nuclear doctrine. His work has been published by Comparative Strategy, Strategic Studies Quarterly, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He has also published numerous opinion pieces in the Institutes Information Series as well as the Wall Street Journal, War on the Rocks, Defense News, and Defense One.

While working for the National Institute, Matt graduated in 2012 from Missouri State University with an M.S. in Defense and Strategic Studies. His thesis, “Gunboat Diplomacy in the South China Sea” was chosen for publication at the U.S. Air Force Institute for National Security Studies. He is currently a PhD candidate at George Mason University and is writing his dissertation on the intersection of leadership perceptions and war termination in World War II. From 2019-2021, Matt served as a Special Assistant in the office of Nuclear and Missile Defense policy, Department of Defense. His responsibilities included authoring and editing Congressional testimony for senior leadership on nuclear and missile defense topics, writing reports to Congress, drafting speeches to domestic and foreign audiences, and ensuring strategic communications were consistent with official U.S. government policy.

While at the Pentagon, Matt also briefed numerous senior officials up to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, explained U.S. policy to multiple allied delegations, and produced nuclear-themed tabletop exercises. For these and other accomplishments, Matt was presented with the Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Exceptional Public Service. From 2012-2019, Matt worked as an Analyst at National Institute, specializing in many of the same areas he currently writes on. Before 2012, he researched cybersecurity, emergency management, and foreign airpower acquisition at the Congressional Research Service. Prior to that, he worked at SAIC on federal and state emergency management best practices.

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Maj Gen (Ret), USAF, Garrett Harencak - Supporting the Nevada National Security Site Sep 12, 2023

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Maj Gen (Ret), USAF, Garrett Harencak is the President and CEO of Mission Support and Test Services, LLC (MSTS). Harencak joined Mission Support and Test Services, LLC after nearly four years as Vice President of Strategic Defense Programs for Jacobs Engineering. While at Jacobs, he also served as Deputy Program Manager of the Missile Defense Agency Integrated Research and Development for Enterprise Solutions contract, providing overall strategic vision, leadership, direction, and management for all employees, missions, projects and activities related to the contract. Harencak’s organization, through his leadership, developed and communicated the vision for safe, secure, environmentally and fiscally sound contract execution with full authority and accountability to manage and integrate all contractual, financial and technical performance designed to ensure quality, cost control, timeliness of performance, effective business relations and customer satisfaction.

Before joining Jacobs, Harencak served in the United States Air Force for more than 39 years and rose to the rank of Major General. Positions he has held include Commander of USAF Recruiting Command; Assistant Chief of Staff for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration; Commander at the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland Air Force Base; Principal Assistant Deputy Administrator for Military Application (NA- 10), National Nuclear Security Administration; and Commander of the 509th Bomber Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base.

Harencak holds a bachelor’s degree in humanities from the U.S. Air Force Academy, a master’s degree in management from Abilene Christian University, and a master’s degree in national security studies from the Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base. He is Adjunct Professor of Nuclear Deterrence and Assurance for the Air Force Nuclear College at the Air Force Institute of Technology, and a member of the Board of Regents, Strategic Deterrent Coalition, Washington, D.C.

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Lt Col James McCue - A Tactical Nuclear Mindset: Deterring with Conventional Apples and Nuclear Oranges Sep 07, 2023

Show notes

James McCue is a career helicopter pilot having performed all three USAF rotary wing missions; nuclear security, combat search and rescue, continuity of government. He has earned his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering and masters studies with the Air Force Institute of Technology, Emby Riddle, Missouri State University, and a fellowship with the National Defense University's C-WMD program.

He has been working at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency for the last four years supporting nuclear wargames, nuclear doctrine development, is a Fellow at the National Institute for Deterrence Studies, and is a visiting professor with the Defense Nuclear Weapons School where he lectures in that institution's Nuclear Policy course. He has published through Air University and Naval Postgraduate School on matters of physical security of nuclear weapons as well as deterrence at the edge of conventional and nuclear conflict.

Here is a link to his latest work: https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/AEtherJournal/Journals/Volume-2_Number-2/McCue.pdf?source=GovD

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Thom Mason, Ph.D. - Oppenheimer and the future of Los Alamos National Laboratory Sep 05, 2023

Show notes

Thomas (Thom) Mason is the President and CEO of Triad National Security, LLC (Triad) and serves as the Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory. Most recently he was the Senior Vice President for Global Laboratory Operations at Battelle where he had responsibility for governance and strategy across the six National Laboratories that Battelle manages or co-manages.

Prior to joining Battelle, Thom worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for 19 years, including 10 years as the Laboratory Director. Under his leadership, ORNL saw significant growth in programs, new facilities, and hiring while achieving record low safety incident rates.

Before becoming Laboratory Director, he was Associate Laboratory Director (ALD) for Neutron Sciences, ALD for the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), and Director of the Experimental Facilities Division.

During his time in Oak Ridge, Thom was active in the community serving as Chair of the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation as well as Innovation Valley, the Knoxville-Oak Ridge area regional economic development organization.

He moved to ORNL from the University of Toronto where he was a faculty member in the Department of Physics and previously worked as a Senior Scientist at Risø National Laboratory and a Postdoc at AT&T Bell Laboratories.

For the past 30 years, he has been involved in the design and construction of scientific instrumentation and facilities and the application of nuclear, computing, and materials sciences to solve important challenges in energy and national security.

Thom has a Ph.D. in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics from McMaster University and a BSc in Physics from Dalhousie University.

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Chris Stone - Who Will Defend Critical Space Infrastructure if not the Space Force? Aug 31, 2023

Show notes

Christopher Stone is a senior fellow for space deterrence studies at the National Institute for Deterrence Studies think tank. He previously served as special assistant to the deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy.

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Ray Smith (Part 2) - The History of Oak Ridge and Y-12 to Present Day Aug 29, 2023

Show notes

With nearly 53 years living and working in Oak Ridge, TN, Ray Smith has developed an extensive understanding and appreciation of the heritage of Oak Ridge’s history, especially the Manhattan Project era and resulting technological advances during ensuing years. For the last 10 years of his 47-year career with the Y-12 National Security Complex, he served as the official Y-12 Historian. Ray now serves as the Historian for the city of Oak Ridge, TN. He was appointed to that position in December 2015.

Ray has co-produced the award-winning and highly acclaimed Secret City: The War Years and Secret City: 1945–2006 documentary films that have become the definitive history of Oak Ridge. He has also produced a four-episode television series of 30-minute programs on the history of the Y-12 National Security Complex, A Nuclear Family, which has won four platinum Remi awards in the World Fest-Houston International Film Festival. He completed the compilation of twelve documentary short films including the award winning Our Hidden Past series into a two DVD set, Y-12 Anthology. His most recent documentary film, produced in January 2018, is Ed Westcott– Photographer, a tribute to the famous Manhattan Project and Department of Energy photographer without whose exceptional photographs our Oak Ridge and DOE history would not be nearly so well documented. The documentary film can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYvzw9f8M8A.

In 2017, Ray was appointed a commissioner on the Tennessee Historical Commission and is now serving his second three-year term. He has served on several boards for charitable organizations, one a state level board, The Tennessee Children's Home, of which he is currently the past chairman. He is also on the board of directors of the East Tennessee Historical Society and the nation board of directors of the Atomic Heritage Foundation. In 2018, Ray assisted Dr. Lee Riedinger, Professor of Physics and Director, Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education at the University of Tennessee, teach an honors course, Science and History of the Manhattan Project. The course materials have formed the basis of a book to be published in 2024, Critical Connections, How Partnerships formed at the Dawn of the Atomic Age Helped Transform a University, a National Laboratory, and a City.

Ray is the author of 18 books of Historically Speaking newspaper columns published over the past 17 years.

He has published 10 books of local nature photographs, produced a 40-image photographic show and was chosen as the exclusive source to provide photographs to decorate the TownePlace Hotel as well as a portion of the Y-12 Federal Credit Union. His photographs also decorate other offices in Oak Ridge and some company websites.

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John Swegle, Ph.D. 2 - Nuclear Arms Control: Operational Considerations Aug 24, 2023

Show notes

Dr. John Swegle works as an independent consultant through the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska on issues related to the effects of nuclear weapons and proliferation on US national security. Immediately prior to that, he was a Senior Advisory Scientist at the Savannah River National Laboratory in Aiken, South Carolina. He began his career at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he was a member of the plasma theory group, and then moved to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he conducted and managed analyses of foreign technology and nuclear programs in what was then Z Division; he also worked in a nuclear design division for several years where he was introduced to the basic concepts of nuclear design and nuclear-driven electromagnetic pulse.

He is a graduate of Cornell University, where he obtained an MS and PhD in applied physics with a specialty in plasma physics, and the University of Washington in Seattle, where he earned BSEE and MSEE degrees.

Dr. Swegle has also had a long career in the field of high-power microwaves. He is the co-author of High-Power Microwaves, which has been published in three editions. The book has become an international standard and has been translated into Chinese. He served as an Associate Editor of The Physics of Plasmas and co-edited a special issue of the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science devoted to high-power microwaves.

EPISODE NOTES:

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Ray Smith (Part 1) - The History of Oak Ridge and Y-12 to Present Day Aug 22, 2023

Show notes

With nearly 53 years living and working in Oak Ridge, TN, Ray has developed an extensive understanding and appreciation of the heritage of Oak Ridge’s history, especially the Manhattan Project era and resulting technological advances during ensuing years. For the last 10 years of his 47-year career with the Y-12 National Security Complex, he served as the official Y-12 Historian.

Ray now serves as the Historian for the city of Oak Ridge, TN. He was appointed to that position in December 2015. Ray has co-produced the award-winning and highly acclaimed Secret City: The War Years and Secret City: 1945–2006 documentary films that have become the definitive history of Oak Ridge. He has also produced a four-episode television series of 30-minute programs on the history of the Y-12 National Security Complex, A Nuclear Family, which has won four platinum Remi awards in the World Fest-Houston International Film Festival. He completed the compilation of twelve documentary short films including the award winning Our Hidden Past series into a two DVD set, Y-12 Anthology. His most recent documentary film, produced in January 2018, is Ed Westcott– Photographer, a tribute to the famous Manhattan Project and Department of Energy photographer without whose exceptional photographs our Oak Ridge and DOE history would not be nearly so well documented. The documentary film can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYvzw9f8M8A.

Ray is the author of 18 books of Historically Speaking newspaper columns published over the past 17 years. He has published 10 books of local nature photographs, produced a 40-image photographic show and was chosen as the exclusive source to provide photographs to decorate the TownePlace Hotel as well as a portion of the Y-12 Federal Credit Union. His photographs also decorate other offices in Oak Ridge and some company websites.

EPISODE NOTES:

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