#013 - Engineering for Nuclear Security with Cameron Tracy

Cameron Tracy

Cameron is a research scholar at the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation

In this episode we discuss

• How Cameron went from a PhD in materials engineering to researching global security issues

• A brief history of the role of academia in international and nuclear security

• Nuclear arms reduction

• Nuclear waste management and hypersonic missiles

• The importance of dialogue between technologists in different nations to create effective international security policy

• How social dynamics shape discourse on existing and emerging technologies

• The ethical considerations and obligations of engineers, particularly in the weapons and defence space

• How engineers from all disciplines can contribute to the field

Top resources

• Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation

• Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs - Science, Technology, and Public Policy program

• Plutonium management and disposition agreement

• Pugwash conferences

• Ploughshares Fund

• Union of Concerned Scientists, Nuclear Weapons

• Science and Global Security

Cameron Tracy

• Google Scholar profile

• Publications mentioned in this episode

  • The Physics and Hype of Hypersonic Weapons - article

  • Modelling the Performance of Hypersonic Boost-Glide Missiles - paper

  • Disposal, Destruction and Disarmament: Comparative Analysis of US Chemical Weapon and Weapons Plutonium Stockpile Reductions - paper

Timestamps

00:00:00 Intro
00:01:22 Cameron
00:02:21 Cameron's journey
00:08:15 Academic landscape of nuclear and international policy
00:18:43 Disposal of nuclear waste
00:33:16 The social roles of technologists
00:40:57 Social context of nuclear waste
00:48:16 Hypersonic missiles
01:00:04 How policymakers get information on weapons systems
01:03:37 Impartial information from institutions
01:11:07 Ethics of being an engineer
01:21:37 How to enter policy as an engineer
01:24:10 Best engineering disciplines for nuclear policy work
01:27:28 Resources for learning more
01:28:37 What do you wish you had invented
01:30:31 Learn more about Cameron
01:31:33 Outro