UK PONI Annual Conference 2023

Attendees are requested to arrive several minutes before the conclusion of registration to guarantee they are seated for the start of the conference.

Professor Malcolm Chalmers, Deputy Director-General, RUSI

Dr Sarah Tzinieris, Research Fellow, King’s College London
Implications of Advanced Capabilities within the AUKUS Pact for Deterrence

Aaron Simpson, Graduate Physicist, Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE)
How AUKUS Can be Good for Non-Proliferation

Natasha Karner, PhD Candidate, RMIT University
How to pronounce emu? Reading the Fine Print of AUKUS

Chair: Professor Steve Fetter, Senior Associate Fellow, RUSI; Visiting Professor, Department of War Studies, King’s College London; Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland

Coffee and tea will be available for conference attendees.

Louis Reitmann, Research Associate, Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation
Preparing for Progress: The UK’s Potential in Nuclear Risk Reduction and Disarmament

Eva-Nour Repussard, Policy Fellow, BASIC
Cyber-Nuclear Nexus: How Uncertainty Threatens Deterrence

Thomas Layhe, Graduate, Consultancy
Technological Developments Affecting the Royal Navy’s Continuous At-Sea Deterrent: Assessing the Implications for Global Nuclear Stability

Chair: Dr Matthew Harries, Director of Proliferation and Nuclear Policy, RUSI; UK PONI Director

Lunch will be provided for conference attendees.

Rose Gottemoeller, Steven C. Házy Lecturer at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and its Center for International Security and Cooperation; Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution

In conversation with

Dr Matthew Harries, Director of Proliferation and Nuclear Policy, RUSI; UK PONI Director

Seddon Atkinson, Reactor Physicist, National Nuclear Laboratory
Steven Proud, Senior Security Consultant, National Nuclear Laboratory
The UK’s plutonium options

Dominic Brennan, Doctoral Student, University of Cambridge
Prospecting Through a Straw: How the Global Drive for Cost-savings Competes with Non-proliferation Safeguarding’

Ruth Smith, Deputy Director, NNSA’s Office of International Nuclear Safeguards, U.S. Department of Energy
A View from the United States – Radical Collaboration is Needed for New Nuclear Expansion

Chair: Fiona Barton, Capability Manager – Infinity Park Development, Rolls-Royce Submarines

Coffee and tea will be available for conference attendees.

Duanyi Yi, PhD Candidate, University of Glasgow
Why Did China’s Nuclear Arsenal Expand in 2021?

Cameron Brown, Graduate Scientist, Atomic Weapons Establishment
China’s Civil Nuclear Strategy and the risk it poses for enabling nuclear proliferation in rapidly growing African nations

Chair: Professor Andrew Futter, Professor of International Politics, University of Leicester

Dr Matthew Harries, Director of Proliferation and Nuclear Policy, RUSI; UK PONI Director

There is a drinks reception for all attendees