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Speaker biographies
Thomas B. Cochran is the director of nuclear programs and holds the Wade Greene Chair for Nuclear Policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Mr. Cochran has been with NRDC since 1973, where he initiated NRDC’s Nuclear Weapons Databook project and a series of joint nuclear weapons verification projects with the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee and has served as a consultant to numerous government and nongovernment agencies on energy, nuclear nonproliferation, and nuclear reactor matters. Previously he served as a member of the DOE’s Environmental Management Advisory Board, Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Board, Energy Research Advisory Board, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Safety Advisory Committee on the Clean Up of Three Mile Island, and the Three Mile Island Public Health Advisory Board. Mr. Cochran co-edited and authored four volumes of the Nuclear Weapons Databook, and is the author of The Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (Resources for the Future, 1974) and Making the Russian Bomb (Westview Press, 1995). In addition, his articles and working papers have been published in the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Yearbook, Arms Control Today, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and The New Encyclopedia Britannica. In 1987, he was the recipient of the American Physical Society’s Szilard Award and the Federation of American Scientists’ Public Service Award. As a consequence of his work, NRDC received the 1989 Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of which Mr. Cochran is a fellow.
Edward Cummins is the vice president of regulatory affairs and standardization at Westinghouse Electric Company. During his twenty-nine years at Westinghouse, he has worked on a variety of assignments in project management, engineering management, and new plant design. In 1985, Mr. Cummins joined the Plant Engineering Division as the department manager responsible for nuclear mechanical equipment, materials, and fossil plant engineering. In 1988 and 1989, he was responsible for the project management, project development, financing, and contracts structure for a Westinghouse-owned gas turbine combined cycle project in Mojave, California. In 1990, Mr. Cummins joined the AP600 project development team as the manager of Balance of Plant Design, and in 1997, he became the general manager of the New Plant Projects Division, assuming responsibility for the marketing and project implementation for new nuclear plant projects. In March 2000, Mr. Cummins was appointed vice president of New Plant Regulatory Affairs and Standardization, in which capacity he is responsible for the licensing and commercialization of the AP1000, a plant designed to be competitive with natural gas–fired combined cycle plants. Prior to joining Westinghouse in 1976, Mr. Cummins served seven years in the U.S. Navy with assignments in engineering and operations on two nuclear powered submarines.
Jon Entine is an adjunct fellow at AEI, a columnist for the British-based magazine Ethical Corporation, and a writer on business ethics, science, and public policy. His newest book, Abraham’s Children, about the nexus of race, disease, and identity in Western culture, is scheduled for publication by Warner Books in 2007. He previously wrote and edited the AEI Press books Let Them Eat Precaution: How Politics is Undermining the Genetic Revolution in Agriculture and Pension Fund Politics: The Dangers of Socially Responsible Investing. Before launching his writing career, Mr. Entine was a network television news writer and producer from 1975 to 1994, winning more than twenty awards, including two Emmys for specials on the reform movements in China and the former Soviet Union. While at NBC News, he produced and co-wrote Black Athletes: Fact and Fiction, which won the award for best feature film at the Forty-Fifth Annual International Sport Film Festival in 1990, and inspired his book Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We’re Afraid to Talk about It (Public Affairs, 2000).
Kenneth P. Green is a visiting scholar at AEI, where he studies public policy pertaining to energy and the environment. An environmental scientist by training, he has authored numerous policy studies, newspaper and magazine articles, several encyclopedia and book chapters, and a textbook for middle-school students entitled Global Warming: Understanding the Debate (Enslow Publishers, 2002). Prior to coming to AEI, Mr. Green studied U.S. policy issues for eight years with California’s Reason Foundation, and studied Canadian policy issues for nearly three years at Canada’s Fraser Institute.
Judi Greenwald is the director of Innovative Solutions at the Pew Center for Global Climate Change. Ms. Greenwald has over twenty years of experience working on energy and environmental policy. Prior working at the Pew Center, she worked as a consultant, focusing on innovative approaches to solving environmental problems. She also served as a senior advisor on the White House Climate Change Task Force. As a member of the professional staff of the U.S. Congress Energy and Commerce Committee, she worked on the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments, the 1992 Energy Policy Act, and a number of other energy and environmental statutes. She was also a Congressional fellow with then-Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd, an environmental scientist with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and an environmental engineer and policy analyst at the Environmental Protection Agency. Ms. Greenwald has published papers on many environmental topics, including water quality monitoring, climate change policy, the development of newer coal technologies, and the implications for air quality analysis of extended lifetimes for coal-fired boilers.
Steven F. Hayward is the F. K. Weyerhaeuser Fellow in Environmental Studies at AEI and a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute. He is also an adjunct fellow at the John Ashbrook Center and a former Bradley Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a Weaver Fellow of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, an Earhart Fellow, and the Olive Garvey Fellow of the Mont Pelerin Society. Mr. Hayward studies the environment, law, political economy, and the presidency. He is the author of the annual Index of Leading Environmental Indicators, published jointly by the AEI Press and the Pacific Research Institute, and a number of other books, including The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, 1964–1980; Churchill on Leadership: Executive Success in the Face of Adversity; and Greatness. Hayward writes AEI’s Environmental Policy Outlook and has had works published in National Review, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Reason, The Weekly Standard, Policy Review, and the Chicago Tribune.
Dale E. Klein became chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in July 2006 following his nomination by President George W. Bush and confirmation from the Senate. As chairman, Mr. Klein is the principal executive officer of and the official spokesman for the NRC. Before his appointment, Mr. Klein was the assistant to the Secretary of Defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs. In this role, he was the principal staff assistant and advisor to the Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary of Defense, and the Under Secretary of Defense for acquisition and technology for all policy and planning matters related to nuclear weapons and nuclear, chemical, and biological defense. Previously, Mr. Klein was the vice-chancellor for Special Engineering Programs at the University of Texas and a professor in the department of mechanical engineering (nuclear program) at the University of Texas at Austin. At the university, Mr. Klein was director of the Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory, deputy director of the Center for Energy Studies, and associate dean for research and administration in the College of Engineering. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Nuclear Society. His honors and awards include the Joe J. King Professional Engineering Achievement Award, Engineer of the Year for the State of Texas, the University of Missouri Faculty-Alumni Award, and the University of Missouri Honor Award for Distinguished Service in Engineering. Mr. Klein has published more than a hundred technical papers and reports, and co-edited one book.
Paul Joskow is the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics and Management at MIT and the director of the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. Professor Joskow joined the MIT faculty in 1972. He teaches and researches industrial organization, energy and environmental economics, and government regulation of industry. He has authored or coauthored six books and published over 125 articles on these subjects. He was one of the authors of the 2003 MIT study “The Future of Nuclear Power.” Professor Joskow is a fellow of the Econometric Society and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Edwin Lyman has been a senior scientist in the Global Security program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) in Washington, D.C., since May 2003. His research focuses on the prevention of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism. He has published articles and letters in journals and magazines including Science, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and Science and Global Security. He is an active member of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management. He is also the author of the 2004 report “Chernobyl-on-the-Hudson?” a technical analysis of the radiological consequences of a terrorist attack at the Indian Point nuclear power plant near New York City. In May 2005, he testified at a Senate subcommittee oversight hearing on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) regulation of safety and security at nuclear power plants, and in January 2005, he testified as an expert witness at an NRC hearing. He also testified in March 2003 in the House of Representatives on U.S. energy policy. Before joining UCS, he was president of the Nuclear Control Institute, a Washington-based organization committed to nuclear nonproliferation.
Ernest J. Moniz is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems and co-director of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment at MIT, where he has served on the faculty since 1973. His principal research contributions have been in theoretical nuclear physics, particularly in advancing nuclear reaction theory at high energy. He is co-chair of the MIT Energy Research Council, an interdisciplinary faculty group, and has served as head of the department of physics and as director of the Bates Linear Accelerator Center. Professor Moniz also served as under secretary of the Department of Energy from October 1997 until January 2001. There he managed the department’s research and development programs, led a comprehensive review of the nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship program, and served as the secretary’s special negotiator for Russian initiatives. Mr. Moniz also served from 1995 until 1997 as associate director for science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President. Dr. Moniz is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Humboldt Foundation, and the American Physical Society, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He received the 1998 Seymour Cray HPC Industry Recognition Award for vision and leadership in advancing scientific simulation.
Richard J. Myers is the executive director of the Policy Development Division and special assistant to the president at the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the nuclear energy industry’s Washington-based policy organization. He is responsible for defining policy initiatives and managing NEI programs in a number of areas, and is currently leading NEI’s programs to implement the financial incentives for new nuclear plant construction authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. He is also in charge of monitoring energy policy issues and market trends, NEI analysis of how the energy markets affect nuclear plants, and NEI’s liaison with the financial community. Mr. Myers joined the U.S. Council for Energy Awareness (USCEA)—NEI’s predecessor organization—in 1987 as director of editorial programs and was named USCEA’s vice president of industry communications and publications in 1990. Mr. Myers started his career as a journalist in 1972 as assistant editor of the monthly Petroleum Marketer. He served as senior editor of Oil Week in 1973, and executive editor with King Publishing Group from 1973 until 1986, during which time he was in charge of all of the company’s publications, including The Energy Daily and Defense Week. He has written extensively for other publications, including the Financial Times, Fortune, and The American Spectator.
Charles W. Pennington is the vice president of NAC International, where he directs sales and marketing activities for the nuclear spent fuel storage and transportation business units. He also serves as the director of NAC’s Nuclear Spent Fuel Academy. He previously led NAC’s engineering design and product development business units, and directed NAC’s research and development, design, and licensing of major spent fuel multipurpose technology systems. With almost forty years of experience in the nuclear industry, Mr. Pennington has directed the development and commercialization of many nuclear technology systems, including eleven spent fuel and nuclear waste storage and transport systems. He holds several patents for nuclear methods, and has served as an expert witness in the application and economics of spent fuel storage and transportation. He is also active in public outreach efforts on nuclear safety, reporting on comparative assessments of ionizing radiation exposures caused by non-nuclear industries in demonstrating the safety of all things nuclear. Mr. Pennington also served as an officer in both nuclear weapons and engineering capacities for the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine force.
William Tucker is a veteran journalist who has covered energy and the environment for twenty-five years. His cover stories on these topics have appeared in Harper's, The Weekly Standard, and National Review on the subject. His 1982 book, Progress and Privilege (Better World Books), was an early critique of the environmental movement. His next book, Terrestrial Energy: How a Nuclear-Solar Alliance Can Save the Planet, will be published in 2007.
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