6th year of Science on Tap

Thanks to the continued support of UNM, Explora and the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History

 

 A time to eat, drink & talk about science!

on Central

Join us Thursday, February 1st at 5:30

Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

Greg Mello
Executive Director 
Los Alamos Study Group

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was finalized and adopted by 122 states at a special United Nations negotiating Conference on July 7, 2017. The Treaty opened for signature on September 20, 2017; by week's end there were 54 signatory states. On October 6 it was announced that the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize would go to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which, in an unprecedented partnership with the diplomatic community, led the successful campaign for the Treaty. The Prize was awarded in Oslo on December 10, 2017.
    But what is this Treaty? How and why did it arise? What is its historical significance? How could a small group of people succeed when so many others had failed? How do its signatories and proponents expect the Treaty to help prevent nuclear war and foster disarmament? Will it apply to the United States and the other nuclear weapon states who do not sign it? How will it affect US alliances in Europe and the Western Pacific? How will it affect the New Mexico laboratories? What is the status of the Treaty today? And what can we do now to bring the Treaty into force and apply it here in the US and in New Mexico?
    Greg Mello will address these questions and any others you may have.
    Greg, with Trish Williams-Mello, his wife and co-worker, were active participants and presenters at (and between) the several fact-finding and negotiating fora that led to this Treaty over the 2014-2017 period. 



Greg Mello, Executive Director, is a co-founder of the Los Alamos Study Group and has led its varied activities since 1992, including policy research, environmental analysis, congressional education and lobbying, community organizing, litigation (FOIA, civil rights, NEPA), advertising, and the nuts and bolts of funding and running a small nonprofit. From time to time he has served as a consulting analyst, writer, and spokesperson for other nuclear policy organizations. Greg was educated as a systems engineer with a broad scientific background (Harvey Mudd College, 1971, with distinction) and as a regional planner with emphases in environmental planning and regional economics (Harvard, 1975, with distinction, HUD Fellow in Urban Studies). During the early 1980s Greg was a high school science and math teacher, then a hazardous waste inspector and statewide hazardous materials incident commander, and in the late 1980s a supervising hydrogeologist, for the New Mexico Environment Department. In 1984 Greg led the first regulatory enforcement at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). In the early 1990s Greg was a consulting hydrologist in parallel with the early Study Group, with cleanup projects in New Mexico and California. In 2002, Greg was a Visiting Research Fellow at Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security. Greg’s research, analysis, and opinions have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Issues in Science and Technology, in the New Mexico press, and elsewhere. He has been interviewed thousands of times by U.S. and international news media (print, radio, and television). Greg’s research has been the source or impetus of many of these media articles and programs. In addition to speaking at hundreds of public meetings and events in New Mexico, Greg has been a guest speaker at several international disarmament events here and abroad.