Abstract:
Nuclear power can electrify the world, or it can destroy it – a dilemma recognized by J. Robert Oppenheimer immediately after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today, nearly 15 percent of the world’s electricity is generated by virtually carbon-free nuclear power. Concerns about global climate change from burning fossil fuels have generated a resurgence of interest in increased nuclear power around the world. Can China’s and India’s planned nuclear expansion be implemented safely and securely? And, how will the international community deal with the spread of nuclear power around the globe, especially in the light of some countries using civilian nuclear energy as a cover for covert nuclear weapons ambitions? 

Brief Biography:
Siegfried S. Hecker is co-director of the Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation, Senior Fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Professor (Research) in the Department of Management Science and Engineering. He is also director emeritus at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he served as director from 1986-1997 and senior fellow until July 2005. He received his B.S., M.S., and PhD degrees in metallurgy from Case Western Reserve University.  His current professional interests include plutonium research, cooperative nuclear threat reduction with the Russian nuclear complex, and global nonproliferation and counter terrorism. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is a fellow of numerous professional societies and recently received the Presidential Enrico Fermi Award.