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Dr. Roger Hagengruber, the director of the Office for Policy, Security and Technology and the Institute for Public Policy and a professor of political science at the University of New Mexico, spoke to a group of over fifty Congressional staffers on the subject of nuclear non-proliferation. Prior to working at the University of New Mexico, Dr. Hagengruber served as senior vice president at Sandia National Laboratory. During his 30 years at the lab, he concentrated on non-proliferation issues, and served as a negotiator in Geneva and the Soviet Union. Most recently, he co-authored the report: “Nuclear Power and Proliferation Resistance: Securing Benefits, Limiting Risk”, a report published by the Nuclear Energy Study Group of the American Physical Society.

In his presentation, Dr. Hagengruber began by reviewing the results of a survey which asked 1000 responders their views on various matters related to nuclear energy. Some issues included the risk of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism, the need to reduce energy imports, and trust in information about nuclear energy provided to the public. These questions and responses are tied to the creation of the Nuclear Energy Study Group, a segment of the American Physical Society whose purpose was to examine relevant federal programs and propose options for strengthening options for enhancing proliferation resistance. Sources of information for the report came from the State Department, the Department of Energy, and the National Nuclear Security Administration. Their findings included the essential need for new federal research and development programs, specifically an increase in resources, more specific near-term goals, international collaborations on new research and development, and an overall increase in the priority of proliferation resistance in the design of new energy systems.