Robert Alvarez

A senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, Alvarez served as senior policy adviser to the Energy Department's secretary and deputy assistant secretary for national security and the environment from 1993 to 1999. During this tenure, he led teams in North Korea to establish control of nuclear weapons materials. He also coordinated Energy's nuclear material strategic planning and established the department's first asset management program.

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Articles by Robert Alvarez

Analysis
21 December 2012

Who should manage the nuclear weapons complex?

Robert Alvarez

As the lame-duck Congress wraps up business, a serious debate is unfolding over the future of the US nuclear weapons complex. For the first time since the end of World War II, the long-held policy that places control of the design and production of nuclear weapons in civilian hands may be up for grabs. At issue: What is to be done with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), now located inside the US Department of Energy?

Opinion
24 March 2010
Nuclear Energy

Advice for the Blue Ribbon Commission

Robert Alvarez

President Barack Obama's Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future will have its first meeting this week. The commission, formed after Obama cancelled the Yucca Mountain spent nuclear fuel repository in January, is tasked with rebooting the country's five-decade-plus effort to manage its high-level radioactive waste.

Opinion
27 March 2009
Nuclear WeaponsClimate Change

Is the Energy Department ready to reboot the country?

Robert Alvarez

The Energy Department figures prominently in the recently enacted $789 billion economic stimulus package meant to help the ailing U.S. economy. Specifically, Congress has provided Energy with $38.3 billion for the next two years adding about 75 percent to Energy's annual budgets. It has also increased the agency's authority to grant or guarantee $132 billion in energy loans from the federal government. Energy's "modest" goals, as laid out in its recent strategic plan for the stimulus package: "Create millions of new green jobs and lay the foundation for the future" of the country.

Opinion
8 January 2009
Climate ChangeNuclear Energy

A new energy future means a new Energy Department

Robert Alvarez

As a Nobel laureate in physics and a respected advocate for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Steven Chu, President-elect Barack Obama's choice for energy secretary, appears to be well suited to carrying out Obama's pledge to generate new green energy jobs and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Opinion
16 June 2008
Nuclear Energy

U.S.-Russian nuclear agreement raises serious concerns

Robert Alvarez

On May 13, President George W. Bush submitted to Congress an agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation with the Russian Federation. The "123 agreement"--named after a provision of the 1954 Atomic Energy Act--would establish a 30-year framework for nuclear commerce between the former Cold War enemies, allowing the transfer of nuclear commodities such as reactor components and U.S. government-owned technologies and materials to Russia.

1 July 2005
On Topic

Nuclear Waste: Cleanup Curveball

Robert Alvarez
1 July 2003
Feature

North Korea: No Bygones at Yongbyon

Robert Alvarez
1 January 2002
Feature

What About the Spent Fuel?

Robert Alvarez
1 July 2001
Feature

Making IT work

Robert Alvarez
Will the legislation do the job?
1 January 2001
Feature

A Long Season of Discontent

Robert Alvarez
Even as the Cerro Grande fire smoldered and burned, Los Alamos, the birthplace of nuclear weapons, was reeling from a series of traumatic blows.

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