NucleCast

Latest Episodes:

Thomas Ramos Part 2 - "From Berkeley to Berlin: How the Rad Lab Helped Avert Nuclear War" Oct 05, 2023

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For the past 40 years, Tom Ramos has been a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). For the past few years Tom has been conducting research and writing a history of the early years of the Cold War, and the nuclear weapons program of LLNL. Through interviews with historical figures and with extensive research into top secret archives, he has brought out new perspectives of the Cold War that have been little understood until now. His efforts were rewarded with the publication of his book, From Berkeley to Berlin.

Tom created several programs in the 1990s that served the Defense Department. Most notable among them, starting with a $200K grant, Tom created the Counterproliferation Analysis and Planning System (CAPS), which helped military operators analyze facilities manufacturing weapons of mass destruction in hostile countries. The program grew into a $46M a year enterprise and was declared to be the Defense Department’s premier counterproliferation program by Secretary of Defense William Cohen. Another significant program that Tom started was the Homeland Defense Operational Planning System (HOPS), a program like CAPS, but steered towards analyses to protect America’s critical infrastructure.

In the 1980’s Tom was a nuclear weapons designer in the Laboratory’s X-Ray Laser Program, which supported President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative. In the program’s last nuclear test, Tom led a team of physicists who designed the program’s brightest laser. In the late 1980s Tom joined a committee helping to prepare the government for START negotiations and he prepared a daily summary sheet for the Secretary of Energy to use at NSC meetings on the resumption of START Talks. Later Tom was assigned to the Pentagon as the legislative affairs officer for the Congressionally mandated Nuclear Weapons Council. Tom’s duties included preparing the Council for Congressional hearings.

Prior to joining the Laboratory, and after graduating from West Point and MIT, Tom served as a combat engineer and was later an associate professor of physics at West Point, New York, where he taught each of the physics department’s core courses, as well as electives in Quantum Mechanics and Nuclear Physics.

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Thomas Ramos Part 1 - "Oppenheimer" the Film: Truths and Myths Oct 03, 2023

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Angela Sheffield - AI Technology and the NC3/Nuclear Enterprise Sep 28, 2023

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As Raft’s Senior Director of Data and AI, Angela Sheffield leads programs to build software, data, and AI solutions to deliver information and decision dominance in all operations conditions and all warfighting domains.

Before joining Raft, Ms. Sheffield served as the Senior Program Manager for AI at the Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development, National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy. In that role, she led programs to advance the science of AI and develop novel capabilities to detect and deter nuclear weapons proliferation for mission partners in the DoD, Intelligence Community, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of State.

Ms. Sheffield began her career as an active-duty Air Force officer with assignments in directed energy weapons research and development with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s 711th Human Performance Wing and technical intelligence at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center. Ms. Sheffield joined DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a senior scientist, where she led major initiatives to develop advanced data and AI techniques to counter terrorism and weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The approaches she pioneered, such as the use of AI to lower detection thresholds and reveal indicators and warnings in nontraditional data sources, are now central to U.S. strategy to reduce nuclear and WMD threats. An internationally recognized expert in AI for science, engineering, and national security, Ms. Sheffield was recently appointed as the first-ever subject matter expert to the Secretary of State’s International Security Advisory Board.

Angie has a B.S. in Economics from the U.S. Air Force Academy and an M.S. in Operations Research from Kansas State University. She is a war college graduate with an M.S. in National Security and Resource Strategy from the National Defense University Eisenhower School.

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Howard Hall, Ph.D. - How One Academic Program is Building Nuclear Operators Sep 26, 2023

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Dr. Howard Hall is the Director for the UT Institute for Nuclear Security. He holds a joint appointment with Consolidated Nuclear Security (Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, TN, and the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, TX), and serves as Professor in both the Department of Nuclear Engineering and the Bredesen Center For Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education. Professor Hall is also a Senior Fellow in Global Security Policy at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee.

Professor Hall received his Ph.D. in Nuclear and Radiochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1989; and his BS in Chemistry from the College of Charleston in 1985. Prior to joining UT, Dr. Hall spent more than 20 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Northern California, where he led major scientific and operational missions in nuclear and homeland security. During his tenure at LLNL, Dr. Hall led efforts supporting US Government programs in aviation safety and security, nuclear threat detection and nuclear emergency response.

In 2005, Dr. Hall was part of the team awarded the Department of Homeland Security/Science and Technology Directorate Under Secretary's Award for Science. Professor Hall is a member of the American Nuclear Society, the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society, the American Society for Engineering Education, the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, and holds the rank of Fellow in the American Institute of Chemists and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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