NucleCast

Major General, USAF (Ret.) Richard J. Evans III (Rick) serves as the Executive Director for the National Strategic Research Institute (NSRI), a national security-focused research institute created by the University of Nebraska. Before joining NSRI, he served more than 35 years in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard, retiring at the rank of Major General in October, 2019. He was previously the Director of Reserve Forces and Mobilization Assistant to the Commander, U.S. Strategic Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. He served as the principal advisor to the Commander on reserve component matters related to the command's diverse missions, including strategic deterrence, nuclear operations and command, control and communications, space and cyberspace operations, full-spectrum global strike, integrated missile defense, joint electromagnetic spectrum operations and joint warfare analysis.

Thank you for listening to NucleCast in 2022! Here is a special episode for the holiday season, featuring an even more special reading from Adam. NucleCast will return in 2023 with new episodes!

Dr. James C. Petrosky is the President of the National Institute for Deterrence Studies (NIDS). He holds a Ph.D. and M.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Engineering Physicswhere he developed experimental techniques for the prediction of damage to electronic devices and materials. He has substantial technical expertise in pulsed radiation effects and nuclear weapon survivability, with an emphasis on radiation effects on electronics and electromagnetic pulse.Previously, Dr. Petrosky served at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) where he achieved the academic rank of Professor of Nuclear Engineering. At AFIT he sustained an ABET accredited Nuclear Engineering program serving the unique military and civilian advanced education requirements for the DoD.Dr. Petrosky has published in 96 public and government classified peer-reviewed journals. He retired from the U.S. Army in 2004 as a Lieutenant Colonel, after serving as an Engineer Officer and Nuclear Research Officer.

Zachary Kallenborn is a Policy Fellow at the Schar School of Policy and Government, a Fellow at the National Institute for Deterrence Studies, a Research Affiliate with the Unconventional Weapons and Technology Division of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), an officially proclaimed U.S. Army "Mad Scientist," and Senior Consultant at ABS Group.

Lucian co-founded the non-profit entity, United Coalition for Advanced Nuclear Power in 2021 to facilitate the use of advanced nuclear reactor for to meet federal andcommercial energy needs. Lucian’s national security expertise spans five decades as an Air Force and the Air National Guard Officer, Professional Staff Member on the Senate Armed Service Committee, and in the Pentagon and White House. Throughout his professional career, he has been a strong advocate for the use of clean, safe advanced nuclear power to enhance energy resiliency with balanced, reliable energy generation sources.He previously served as an Assistant Secretary of Defense managing the world’s largest real property portfolio, encompassing 28 million acres on 500 installations valued at a trillion dollars. Lucian was responsible for identifying and mitigating risk to national security programs, as well as improving energy and environmental resilience through alternate power generation development and investments in the protection of natural resources.

Sam (Robert) Wilson is a senior policy analyst for the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation. In this role, he is responsible for leading work on the nexus of commercial and national security space, comparative space, and missile issues. His work has appeared or been covered in The Washington Post, The Financial Times, Politico, SpaceNews, Breaking Defense, Kyodo News, Japan Today, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, The Diplomat, Milsat Magazine, and Satellite Magazine, among other outlets.Prior to joining Aerospace, Wilson served as a senior defense analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, where he focused on strategic force structure and nuclear command, control, and communications. He received both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Virginia. You can follow him on Twitter @spacenukesam.

Welcome to a special episode of NucleCast! Not only is Dr. Adam Lowther the host of NucleCast, he is Director of Strategic Deterrence Programs at the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska, U.S. Strategic Command's University Affiliated Research Center. Prior to joining NSRI, Dr. Lowther served as the first director of the department of multi-domain operations (MDO) at the Army Management Staff College (AMSC), was a professor at the U.S. Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies, founding director of the School of Advanced Nuclear Deterrence Studies, Kirtland AFB and director of the Center for Academic and Professional Journals at the Air Force Research Institute (AFRI), Maxwell AFB.

Dr. Robert J. Peters is the former Chief within the Strategic Integration Directorate of the Strategic Trends and Effects Department (STED) at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. STED’s mission is to generate timely, credible, and actionable insights into threats within the counter-WMD and counter-emerging threat mission space and to assess the effectiveness of Agency efforts to support the Joint Warfighter.Prior to joining DTRA, Mr. Peters served as a Senior Research Fellow at National Defense University's Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction. From March-November 2009, Mr. Peters was detailed to the Office of the Secretary of Defense-Policy as Special Assistant to the DASD for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction. In this role, he supported the White House on several key nuclear deterrence and countering WMD initiatives.

Scott Sudduth is a founding partner of Washington Navigators, a strategic consulting firm focused on federal and international issues affecting higher education, innovation and competitiveness, and nuclear national security. He spent 30 years as a member of the senior management teams at four of the nation’s premier comprehensive research universities: the University of California System, the University of Chicago, The University of Texas System, and The Texas A&M University System.Sudduth has contributed to the proposal teams of several national laboratory competitions and has been deeply involved in the management and oversight of the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration national laboratories. Scott served on the board of Triad National Security, LLC. which manages Los Alamos National Laboratory.

CEO & Founder of the Small Business Consulting Corporation (SBCC). SBCC helps the military find and connect with innovative companies in order to help transition their best technologies for the nation’s most critical defense missions.Goodfellow is a 30-year Air Force Veteran who, in his last active-duty military job, served as the Director of Strategic Plans, Programs and Requirements at Air Force Global Strike Command located at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. In this position, he was responsible for strategic planning, and for resourcing the nation's Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile force, B-1,B-2 and B-52 bombers, UH-1N helicopters, the E-4B National Airborne Operations Center Aircraft, and Nuclear Command, Control and Communications (NC3) systems.

Dr. Michaela Dodge is a Research Scholar at the National Institute for Public Policy. Prior to joining the National Institute, Dr. Dodge worked at The Heritage Foundation from 2010-2019. She left Heritage to serve as Senator Jon Kyl’s Senior Defense Policy Advisor between October to December 2018. Her last position at Heritage was a Research Fellow for Missile Defense and Nuclear Deterrence. Dr. Dodge’s work focuses on U.S. nuclear weapons and missile defense policy, nuclear forces modernization, deterrence and assurance, and arms control. Additionally, she was a Publius Fellow at the Claremont Institute in 2011 and participated in the Center for Strategic and International Studies PONI Nuclear Scholars Initiative Program.

David Beering is the owner of Intelligent Designs LLC, a small business based in West Lafayette, IN at the Purdue University Research Park. The firm focuses on Engineering, Design, Integration & Testing, and Implementation of complex communications systems utilizing satellites and high-speed wireless connections. During his career, Beering has held leading roles in more than 85 projects working with organizations including the US Naval Research Laboratory, US Army, Missile Defense Agency, Airbus Defense & Space, Lockheed Martin, The Boeing Company, Ball Aerospace, Sandia National Laboratories, Northrop Grumman, and BP.

Bruce Klingner specializes in Korean and Japanese affairs as the senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center.Klingner has testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He is a frequent commentator in U.S. and foreign media. His articles and commentary have appeared in major American and foreign publications and he is a regular guest on broadcast and cable news outlets. He is a regular contributor to the international and security sections of The Daily Signal.From 1996 to 2001, Klingner was CIA’s deputy division chief for Korea, responsible for the analysis of political, military, economic and leadership issues for the president of the United States and other senior U.S. policymakers. In 1993-1994, he was the chief of CIA’s Korea branch, which analyzed military developments during a nuclear crisis with North Korea.Klingner is a distinguished graduate of the National War College, where he received a master’s degree in national security strategy in 2002. He also holds a master’s degree in strategic intelligence from the Defense Intelligence College and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Middlebury College in Vermont.He is active in Korean martial arts, attaining third-degree black belt in taekwondo and first-degree black belt in hapkido and teuk kong moo sool.

Colonel Keith J. Butler is the Commander of Detachment 5, Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. He is the Operational Commander of all B-2 Spirit and T-38 Talon aircraft assigned to the world’s only stealth bomber base and is responsible for the combat readiness of $45B in Air Force assets and 400+ Airmen. Former F-16 and F-117 pilot. Col. Butler served in the Rapid Capabilities Office and Joint Staff, graduated from National Defense University's Center For The Study of WMD Studies, Air Force Institute of Technology, is a former Secretary of Defense Executive Fellow at Autodesk and a former National Technical Fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Lab.

The sixteenth episode of NucleCast features Dr. Rob Soofer, a Senior Associate (non-resident) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies (CSS), teaching courses in nuclear strategy, missile defense, and arms control. He serves as a consultant for the Sandia and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.Rob was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Missile Defense Policy from April 2017 to January 2021. Previously, Rob served for eight years as Professional Staff Member and Republican staff lead for the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces of the Senate Armed Services Committee and as Strategic Forces Policy Advisor to Senator Jon Kyl, the Republican Whip. Rob also was Military Legislative Assistant to Senator Slade Gorton (R-WA) and Professional Staff Member on the Senate Republican Policy Committee. He joined the National War College for three years as Professor of National Security Policy, and served for eight years in various policy and international affairs positions with the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization/Missile Defense Agency. In 2003, he was called to active duty as a Lieutenant Commander in the Naval Reserve and assigned to the newly created Terrorist Threat Integration Center.

Dr. John R. Harvey is a physicist with over 40 years of experience working nuclear weapons and national security issues, first at LLNL, then at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Arms Control and in senior positions in the Departments of Defense (twice) and Energy. From 2009-2013, he served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs. In this role, he was Undersecretary Ash Carter’s “go to” person for the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review, and for interactions with the NNSA on joint oversight of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Dr. Harvey provided oversight to DoD acquisition programs to sustain and modernize nuclear weapons delivery systems and systems for their command and control. He has written and spoken extensively on these issues. On retiring from government service in 2013, he consults with, among others, the Defense Science Board, Institute for Defense Analysis, Los Alamos National Laboratory, U.S. Strategic Command’s Advisory Panel on Nuclear Command and Control and NNSA’s Defense Programs Advisory Committee.

Dr. Brent Park is a physicist and a former government official; appointed to a position at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) – by the President and in just 6 weeks confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on March 22, 2018. Brent develops policy and technology solutions to real world challenges by leading and coordinating R&D program-development efforts in high-performance computing, big data analytics and decision applications, cyber security, mechanical and electrical engineering, materials science and engineering, physical sciences, and nuclear science and engineering. Prior to joining NNSA, Brent served as Associate Laboratory Director at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and was the director of NNSA’s Remote Sensing Laboratory.

Episode 13 of NucleCast features the Honorable William C. Ostendorff! Bill Ostendorff has a distinguished career as an engineer, legal counsel, policy advisor, and naval officer. He currently serves as a nuclear industry adviser for several companies. In addition, he co-chairs a National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine Committee on Risk Analysis for Nuclear War and Nuclear Terror. He also serves as a member of the Intelligence Community Studies Board at the National Academies which advises the Director of National Intelligence on Science and Technology. He served as Principal Deputy Administrator at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) in the Bush administration (2007-2009) and as a Commissioner at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (2010-2016) in the Obama administration.

Episode twelve of NucleCast features an interview with Jim Howe. Jim Howe has extensive experience in nuclear energy, national and homeland security, policymaking, and communications. He has spent the last 12 years working in the nuclear industry, where he was deeply involved in the deployment of state-of-the-art uranium enrichment technology. Jim has worked with a number of advanced reactor developers as they bring their technologies to market, and has collaborated with numerous partners in Congress, the executive branch, trade associations, and industry, in the U.S. and internationally.

Episode eleven of NucleCast has a very special interview with Brigadier General Stacy Jo Huser, the Principal Assistant Deputy Administrator for Military Application, National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy, Washington, D.C. Where she assists the Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs to maintain the safety, security, and reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile.

Episode ten of NucleCast features Curtis McGiffin. Curtis is currently a Visiting Professor with the Department of Defense and Strategic Studies at Missouri State University where he teaches graduate and doctorate courses on deterrence and grand strategy. Previously, he was the Associate Dean of the School of Strategic Force Studies at the Air Force Institute of Technology, where he led a robust portfolio of USAF professional continuing education programs supporting the AF nuclear enterprise. He also has ~27 years of experience in the USAF as an aviator, commander, staff officer, and educator, most of which was supporting the USAF’s nuclear enterprise.

Episode nine of the series features the Honorable David J. Trachtenberg is Vice President of the National Institute for Public Policy, a nonprofit research center in Fairfax, Virginia. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 17, 2017 as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and served in this capacity until his retirement from government service in July 2019. Until January 2018, he also served as the Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, the principal civilian adviser to the Secretary of Defense on policy matters. He was also the senior Department of Defense civilian official responsible for DoD policy on civilian casualties resulting from military operations.

Episode 8 of the NucleCast series features Patty-Jane Geller. Patty-Jane Geller is the Senior Policy Analyst for Nuclear Deterrence and Missile Defense at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense, where she conducts research, writes, and engages audiences on a variety of issues related to strategic forces.

Episode seven of NucleCast featuring Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota! Kevin Cramer was elected to the United States Senate on November 6, 2018 after serving three terms as North Dakota’s At-Large Member of the United States House of Representatives. He serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee and offers Senate perspectives on strategic nuclear modernization and deterrence.

The sixth episode of NucleCast stars David Cherington and Jeff Crater, co-founders and managing directors of the Advanced Nuclear Weapons Alliance(ANWA) Deterrence Center. ANWA Deterrence Center raises awareness and educates about the modernization of the U.S. strategic nuclear deterrent. ANWA Deterrence Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

Episode five of NucleCast features Dr. Brad Roberts, who has served as director of the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory since 2015. From 2009 to 2013, he was deputy assistant secretary of defense for Nuclear and Missile Defense Policy. In this role, he served as policy director of the Obama administration’s Nuclear Posture Review and Ballistic Missile Defense Review and led their implementation. Prior to entering government service, Dr. Roberts was a research fellow at the Institute for Defense Analyses and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, editor of The Washington Quarterly, and an adjunct professor at George Washington University. Between leaving the Office of the Secretary of Defense in 2013 and assuming his current responsibilities, Dr. Roberts was a consulting professor at Stanford University and William Perry Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). While at CISAC, he authored a book entitled The Case for US Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century, which won the Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title in 2016.

The fourth episode of NucleCast features Dr. Stephen J. Cimbala, a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Penn State Brandywine. He is the author of numerous works in the fields of national security studies, nuclear deterrence and arms control, and other topics. An award-winning Penn State teacher, Dr. Cimbala recently co-authored U.S. National Security (Sixth Edition) with John Allen Williams and the late Sam Sarkesian.

Episode three of the NucleCast series features Dr. Mark Schneider, a Senior Analyst with the National Institute for Public Policy. Before his retirement from the Department of Defense Senior Executive Service, Dr. Schneider served in a number of senior positions within the Office of Secretary of Defense for Policy including Principal Director for Forces Policy, Principal Director for Strategic Defense, Space and Verification Policy, Director for Strategic Arms Control Policy and Representative of the Secretary of Defense to the Nuclear Arms Control Implementation Commissions. He also served in the senior Foreign Service as a Member of the State Department Policy Planning Staff.

The Second Episode of NucleCast: Dr. Lisa J. Porter and Dr. Michael D. Griffin are the Co-Founders and Co-Presidents of LogiQ, Inc., a company providing high end management, scientific, and technical consulting services. Adam asks important questions about hypersonics, what are they, how are they used and why are they so important.

The first official episode of NucleCast! Adam interviews Peter Huessy who is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, where he focuses on nuclear deterrence and modernization, arms control, and defense policy. Mr. Huessy has spent the past four decades laying out the requirements for nuclear deterrence and modernization, arms control, and defense policy, as well as the companion efforts on missile defense, space, non- and counterproliferation, particularly using public diplomacy to further US policy. Help us spread the word.