NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby Remarks at Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST) 50th Anniversary Event

Good afternoon, it is my honor and pleasure to be here with you to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Nuclear Emergency Support Team, or NEST.

I want to thank our special guests from across the nuclear security enterprise; our interagency partners from the White House, FBI, DHS, DoD, NRC, FEMA, and EPA; the NGO community; and Congress. The breadth of attendees here today demonstrates the range of activities conducted by NEST and the importance of partnerships for the success of nuclear response capabilities.

I could assert that the true beginning of NEST goes back nearly 80 years. The first generation of many of the tools used by NEST were developed during the Manhattan Project. The scientists and engineers working to build and test early atomic bombs needed data to understand the physics, bomb performance, and radiological consequences of a nuclear explosion. Aerial measuring systems and forensic ground collection capabilities were first developed to understand radioactive fallout during atmospheric testing. 

After World War II, as the Cold War era began, both military and peaceful uses of atomic energy were being developed and deployed. The U.S. and Soviet nuclear arsenals grew both in size and in types of weapons.  As a result of the fast growth and relatively immature safety features, incidents involving accidents with U.S. nuclear weapons, so called Broken Arrows, led to the creation of the Accident Response Group, ARG. ARG consisted of scientists and engineers who would deploy to assess warhead integrity, determine if a warhead was safe to move, and ultimately assist in recovery efforts. 

Alongside the growth in nuclear weapons, nuclear power generation was introduced, and the value of radiological materials for medicine was being realized. The first naval vessel powered by nuclear power, the Nautilus, launched in 1955. The nation’s first nuclear power plant came online in 1958. This growth in nuclear and radiological material led to the creation of the Radiological Assistance Program, RAP.  RAP teams advised on steps to protect public health and safety or the environment during incidents involving radioactive materials. 

Officially, NEST emerged in response to a spate of nuclear extortion threats in the early 1970s. In one case, a letter in Orlando claimed that a hydrogen bomb would destroy the city unless a million-dollar ransom was paid. In another instance, the FBI received communications that a nuclear bomb had been hidden in Boston, with a demand of $200,000 to provide its location. While these and other incidents turned out to be fakes, the implications were far too serious to be ignored. In 1974, President Gerald Ford amended the Atomic Energy Act, formally establishing the new Nuclear Emergency Search Team and placing it under the Atomic Energy Commission. A few years later, when President Jimmy Carter created the Department of Energy, NEST would move into this new organization, and absorb other assets and response units like ARG and RAP.

Soon, NEST was responding to a wide array of incidents and the capabilities it had absorbed were being combined into a more comprehensive and effective response. When the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant accident occurred, a NEST Aerial Measuring System helicopter and ground forensics teams were on the scene to determine if radiation levels posed a risk to public health, directly linking capabilities dating to Manhattan Project to saving lives over 30 years later. 

The evolution of NEST continued; perhaps the big next step was the capability to respond to events outside the United States. When a Soviet nuclear-powered satellite malfunctioned and crashed in the Canadian wilderness, NEST responded. When hundreds of people in Brazil were accidentally exposed to Cesium after a nearby radiotherapy lab had been abandoned, NEST was there. There are many other response examples.

After the Cold War, when President Bill Clinton signed the NNSA Act, NEST continued to develop and add new tools to create a diverse array of capabilities and expertise. The threat of nuclear counterterrorism had become higher due to the increased amount of nuclear material from the former Soviet Union potentially available to bad actors. And so, NEST once again evolved. After 9/11, NEST was officially renamed to the Nuclear Emergency Support Team to better reflect the breadth of its missions and commitment to providing the U.S. government with the best technical and scientific expertise and equipment worldwide for nuclear response.

I’ve had the good fortune of significant personal experiences with NEST. My husband was a long-time member of NEST toward the end of the Cold War and told stories about training exercises. In my previous roles at Sandia National Labs, I worked directly with NEST on many occasions, most notably during the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant incident. Today, in my role as Administrator of NNSA, I track nearly weekly deployments of the Radiological Assistance Program teams and frequent NEST deployments and trainings. I know first-hand, NEST lives up to their motto of “scientifically informed, operationally focused.” In the whole of the U.S. government, only NEST successfully pairs the deep expertise of our Nuclear National Security labs, plants, and sites with the exercises, tools, and training of dedicated and professional field teams. For the last half-century, this unique organization has worked every day to improve deployable capabilities and they’ve been available whenever and wherever needed, to prevent a nuclear or radiological incident and to advise about response if an incident of any type occurs.

It is remarkable how NEST has evolved to become a comprehensive and nimble capability that matches the needs of an ever-changing threat environment. Now in an era of renewed great-power competition, where events like Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine or China’s expanding nuclear arsenal have garnered headlines, we at NNSA must continue to support NEST to be prepared for the full range of nuclear and radiological threats. Even while a nuclear terror attack or nuclear accident remains a low probability event, the consequences could be severe. NEST is here to make sure we never take our eye off the ball and remain committed to improving and evolving our prevention and response capabilities.

Looking to the future, I am confident that NEST will become even faster and better by using new technology like artificial intelligence. And it will be needed. Because at this moment, nuclear power and other nuclear industries are in the midst of a renaissance with significant growth expected. Small modular reactors, advanced space exploration, medicine, food, and other industries are looking to the power of the atom to reduce reliance on fossil fuels or further sustainability and health. The task of keeping materials and expertise safe and secure will grow more difficult. Still, every day for half a century or more, NEST has worked to keep us safe, and I am confident that they will continue to rise to the challenge.

Before I finish, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge a recent, deep loss for NEST, NNSA, and the nuclear security enterprise. Dr. Charles McMillan, former Director of Los Alamos National Lab, passed away in a car accident earlier this month. Charlie was a fixture for decades as both a Lab Director and an advocate for NEST. Affectionately, Charlie was known to be a challenging but patient mentor, frequently challenging colleagues to look beyond the immediate future and think about the long-term. He also saw the value of NEST, believing it to be a worthwhile, career rewarding endeavor. Prior to retirement, he was fully aware of the importance and associated challenges of the NEST mission, engaging as necessary from his multiple leadership positions to ensure its success. Even after retirement, his broad perspectives and awareness of NEST’s continually evolving threat environment allowed him to be a key contributor in several independent NEST program reviews. He was also an extraordinary contributor in articulating DOE and NNSA’s contributions to artificial intelligence. He was an enduring thought leader in the community.  I will miss him, and we will miss his insights and contributions. 

Thank you to the thousands of dedicated women and men who have served in NEST over the last half-century for their service and commitment. Our nation and the world don’t necessarily know about you, but we do. It is the highest duty and honor to keep the world safe without recognition.  But today we thank you and recognize you.

Thank you.