SRNL engineer William Johnson says monitoring technology builds trust between nuclear-armed states

In brief remarks, William Johnson, a senior research engineer at Savannah River National Laboratory, said technologies for weapons monitoring and verification are essential to provide trust among nuclear-armed countries and to reduce the risk of nuclear weapon use.

Johnson, who introduced himself at the start of his remarks, said he has worked extensively on weapons monitoring and verification. "I have been doing a lot of work with weapons monitoring and verification," he said, describing that technical work as a primary focus.

He told listeners that the public feels anxious about nuclear weapons and framed monitoring work as a response to that anxiety. "This is really important because people feel nervous around nuclear weapons," Johnson said, adding that "nobody wins if a nuclear weapon is used." He argued that monitoring and verification tools help provide reassurance about other countries' behavior and, reciprocally, allow others to know that the United States is being responsible.

"These technologies help to provide the trust that we need even between adversaries," Johnson said, saying that such trust can prevent decisions that would be harmful to global interests. Johnson did not state or propose specific policy actions or cite particular programs or statutes in these remarks.