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JANUARY 2012 · Vol 2, Issue 1
News from the NCSU/TISS Energy and Security Initiative |
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Thursday, March 15
R. James Woolsey, Former Director of the CIA, will speak on "Energy and Security," on the NCSU campus
(Afternoon - time and place TBD)
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| Welcome to the Energy and Security Initiative | |
The Energy and Security Initiative (ESI), which was launched in January 2010, is a collaborative effort spearheaded by the Triangle Institute for Security Studies and North Carolina State University. The goal is to cross disciplinary divides so as to better understand the complex links between energy and security. Anchored in a program on nuclear security and non-proliferation, ESI plans to broaden the discussion to include the whole spectrum of energy, from solar and hydro-power to bio-fuels. Better understanding the energy-security nexus is of critical importance. The energy choices we make will have a profound effect on human, national, and collective security. The strategies pursued by other countries in their search for energy
security will help shape the future international order. Our own energy security will, in turn, be contingent upon our ability to work within this environment and deal with changing security threats. We invite you to join us in this challenging task.
The Grid is ESI's electronic newsletter. It is issued two or three times a year. Its purpose is to keep our members connected, inform them of coming events and relevant research, help students identify opportunities in the field, and report briefly on our activities. We invite you also to consult the TISS web site, where we provide more detailed reports of events.
www.tiss-nc.org
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Report on Albright Visit | |
David Albright's Visit to the Triangle 
The highlight of this past Fall semester was a visit by David Albright, Institute for Science and International Security, to North Carolina. Mr. Albright, the founder of the Institute for Science and International Security is one of the world's most respected and sought-out specialists on nuclear proliferation. He honored us with a visit on November 15th, speaking to Joe Caddell's UNC class on Nuclear Security in the Twenty First Century, meeting with members of TISS and ESI for lunch and dinner, and giving a public presentation in the D. H. Hill Library in the evening. His talk , Peddling Peril, Documents, Pictures, and Schematics, was especially timely, coming as it did at a moment of heightened interest in Iran's nuclear development. Itcan be viewed on the TISS web site: Albright on Peddling Peril (2011)
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Report from the INMM Chapter | |
The INMM Triangle Area Student Chapter
The INMM Triangle Area Student Chapter was busy during the Fall semester, hosting speakers such as Professor Joseph Caddell, Jeff Favorite of Los Alamos National Lab, senior national security advisor Randy Weidmann, and Professor Sara Pozzi of the University of Michigan. During this time the chapter made progress in promoting inter-university involvement through participation in an inter-disciplinary networking event and organizing a tour of the nuclear medicine facilities at the North Carolina Memorial Hospital at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. The chapter has also had several members receive recognition, with our former president Steve Skutnik receiving first place in a student paper contest at the INMM National Conference and current treasurer Daniel Wooten was selected for the Robert J. Sorrenson Scholarship. Entering the Spring semester, our chapter looks forward to increasing our involvement with the parent organization through a greater presence at the National Conference and participation in upcoming conferences and events covering topics such as spent nuclear fuels.
Josh Earp, President,
Triangle Area Student Chapter.
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Oak Ridge Workshop |
Oak Ridge Collaborations
The Nuclear Science and Security Consortium, to which TISS/NCSU belonged, was unfortunately unsuccessful in its bid for a major DoE grant. This would have facilitated ties between a number of nuclear labs and universities in the southeast. Despite this setback, ESI continues to strengthen its relationship with Oak Ridge National Lab. A small group of faculty members visited the lab over the summer and received a very interesting series of briefs about ongoing projects in energy and security. Joe Caddell taught a class last semester at UNC on Nuclear Security in the 21st Century and took his students to the lab and this semester Steve Skutnik (now employed at Oak Ridge), is teaching a course at NCSU on nuclear nonproliferation & international safeguards technology and policy.
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Students and Faculty at 2012 Workshop |
Indicative of the rewarding collaboration between ESI and Oak Ridge was the visit by 15 students from UNC, NCSU, and Duke to the lab to engage in a day-long workshop. This covered topics in Global Nuclear Security, Current Nuclear Threats and Issues, Nonproliferation Programs and Efforts, and the Role of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The students were taken on tours of EVEREST, which featured an amazing 27-projector Powerwall displaying 11,520 by 3,072 pixels or a total of 35 million pixels, the historic Graphite Reactor where chemist produced the world's first grams of plutonium, and the Safeguards Laboratory. Students who attended the event found it eye-opening and intellectually stimulating. Generous suppport for this project ($5,000) was provided by Dunbar Lockwood, Director of the Nonproliferation Program at the National Nuclear Security Administration. Our warmest thanks go to the Oak Ridge team for putting together such an excellent program: Jim Sumner, Dawn Eipeldauer, Tim Margrave and Ann Pederson. We are eager to continue collaboration with the nuclear laboratory and in particular encourage students to apply for a summer program at the lab.
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Energy and Security | |
Energy and Security
This year, NCSU faculty members Bill Boettcher and Mike Cobb have joined forces with Adam Stulberg of Georgia Tech in an ACCIAC Global Team Research project on Global Energy Security. The project was awarded $4,500 by the ACC and once again we received matching funds from Dean Jeff Braden of CHASS. The recent conference on Energy and Security revealed multidisciplinary confusion regarding the definition of energy security and policymaker confusion regarding the best paths to achieve this outcome (however defined). The NCSU GTRP year-long academic project focuses on developing an understanding of the concept of energy security and exploring alternative paths that attempt to ameliorate the risks of various forms of energy production. In the fall semester, GTRP students participated in the speaker series associated with the Energy and Security initiative. This spring, several among them (Josh Earp, Michael Haggerty, Ashley Honeycutt, Jacob Presson, and Adrienne Yates) are taking a 3-credit independent study course with Dr. Boettcher on this topic. The NCSU GTRP year-long research project focuses more narrowly on the determinants of public attitudes regarding different forms of foreign or domestic energy production.
Among the energy-oriented held last fall was the panel discussion featuring former Senator John Warner and retired Admiral John Nathman, USN. The presentations focused on the importance of growing the clean energy economy to strengthen our national security and the role the Department of Defense can play as a catalyst of energy innovation. This an issue that has been quite central to TISS concerns since its 2007 conference on the National Security Implications of Global Climate Change. The event was held on the Duke campus and was cosponsored by the TISS/NCSU ESI Initiative as well as by Duke University which has itself launched a campus-wide Energy Initiative. The arguments made by Warner and Nathman can be found in the PEW Report - From Battlefield to Barracks.
Finally, we are happy to report that the Proceedings from the Spring 2011 conference on Energy and Security are now being reviewed by the Strategic Studies Institute - anticipated publication date is April 2012.
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| Mark Your Calendar | |
Spring 2012
Among our coming events will be a talk in March by James Woolsey. He has been working on energy and security issues since his retirement as Director of the CIA. He has spoken widely on the national security arguments in favor of moving away from fossil fuels. He is a founding member of the Set America Free Coalition, dedicated to freeing the United States from oil dependence. He is also on the board of directors for the electric vehicle advocacy group Plug In America and an advisor to The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, a think tank focused on energy security. He is a venture partner in the firm Lux Capital where he focuses on identifying novel breakthroughs and new investment opportunities in energy. In July 2011, Mr. Woolsey, in cooperation with Robert C. Mcfarlane, co-founded the United States Energy Security Council. He will speak to NCSU students and faculty on the afternoon of March 15th: the exact time and place has yet to be determined.
TISS/ESI is also cosponsoring a conference, "Who Controls the Arctic" which has considerable relevance for the issues with which we are concerned. The event will be held at UNC-Chapel Hill on 28 March 2012. See TISS website: ARCTIC conference
Save the dates!!! |
| Opportunities |
We warmly encourage students to consider internships and possible careers in the nuclear nonproliferation and safeguards fields and energy fields. For recent postings, visit the TISS web site: OPPORTUNITIES
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  Carolyn Pumphrey, Ph.D. NCSU/TISS Energy and Security Initiative ESI is a cooperative effort between NCSU and TISS. Its offices are located at TISS headquarters NCSU/TISS energy and Security Initiative (ELI)
132 Rubenstein Hall, 302 Towerview Drive, Duke University
Durham, NC 27708-0316 Phone: 919-613-9280 FAX: 919-684-9940
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