Three Monterey Institute students from the Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies master’s degree program spent the summer as interns at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Next Generation Safeguards Initiative. They had the amazing opportunity to research an aspect of international safeguards that is of personal interest to them with access to “an incredibly diverse field of experts.”
Jennifer Dahnke (MANTPS ’13) examined clandestine plutonium production in research reactors, Lovely Umayan (MANPTS ’13) developed a model for implementing the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Additional Protocol in Argentina and Brazil through the Brazilian-Argentian Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials, and Karen Hogue (MANPTS ’13) developed a tool for using the IAEA’s State Level Concept for safeguards.
According to Jennifer, the experts at the Lawrence Livermore lab were “more than willing to consult with students on projects and give in-depth lectures in their area of expertise and/or tours of their labs.” She says it was amazing to get a tour of the labs by the very scientists and engineers who developed the technologies currently used in the field. “The warm work environment and easy access to researchers” facilitated a productive learning environment for these students taking their first steps towards a career in the field of nonproliferation.