Fiscal Year	2018
Division	Graduate School of Operational & Information Sciences
Department	Defense Analysis
Investigator(s)	Volpe, Tristan A.
Sponsor	MacArthur Foundation (Other)
Summary	Nuclear energy is failing in some countries with the greatest technological capacity and motivation to keep future nuclear options open. Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, and to some degree Japan are all either in the process of phasing out nuclear energy partially or completely or have announced plans to do so in the coming decades. At the same time, these countries face growing regional security challenges amid increasing uncertainty about U.S. alliance commitments. These developments raise a central research question: What are the strategic implications of nuclear energy phase out for the future of Europe and East Asia? In order to address this main question, the project will focus on three topical thrust areas: (1) the regional security implications of nuclear phase out and its effects on alliance architectures; (2) the consequences and opportunities of rapid technological innovations such as Additive Manufacturing on states' ability to preserve or even reconstitute nuclear latency in the absence of a civil nuclear energy program; and (3) the challenges that arise from phase out and technological change to global nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament efforts. The project will deliver a series of workshops and publications over a two-year timeline. In terms of research, the primary objective will be to publish the first major assessment of the political, technological, and security consequences of phasing out nuclear energy by advanced nations in the post-Fukushima era. This sustained research effort will be complemented by a series of private workshops on the proliferation risks of emerging technology with key stakeholders in the United States, Germany, and East Asia. Finally, the Investigators will conduct on the ground interviews with various experts and officials.
Keywords	Additive Manufacturing East Asia Emerging Technologies Europe Nuclear Energy Nuclear Proliferation Nuclear Weapons US Alliances
Publications	Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data	Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal