Sig HeckerDr. Siegfried S. Hecker, PhD, is an Austrian-Polish-American nuclear scientist and metallurgist who served as director of Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1986 until 1997.
On Jan. 19, Hecker will present a public talk titled, “One of the Greatest Nuclear Stories Never Told – Los Alamos and Kazakhstan.”
Hecker works at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.
He explains that in 1992, the Russians pulled out of their former huge nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk, now in the newly independent Republic of Kazakhstan.
Los Alamos scientists were concerned about what the Russians may have left behind that could pose a nuclear proliferation or nuclear terrorism problem.
After 14 years of intense efforts to mitigate these potential problems, we are now allowed to tell the story of the key role Los Alamos played.
Hecker’s talk is a community service of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and will be presented at 7 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 19 at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1967 18th St., in Los Alamos. Refreshments follow the talk.
