Veterans in Advanced Energy Profile: Allison Bennett Irion

Allison Bennett irion, a 2021-2022 Veterans advanced energy fellow

Allisson Bennett Irion, a 2021-2022 Veterans Advanced Energy Fellow, used her experience from the US Navy and Merchant Marines to help research nuclear proliferation risks at international seaports. Today, she helps the US nuclear industry export technology to maintain global leadership in nuclear safety and security. To meet our clean energy goals, she says, supply chains must continue to diversify and innovate to meet the demand and reduce reliance on geopolitically sensitive sources. As told to Jordan Bekenstein.

Why did you join the military and what was your role?

In high school, I was selected to be a Richard Green Scholar, a 500-hour local community mentorship/internship program for area public high schools sponsored by the Texas Ranger baseball team. Through this process, I decided that I wanted to work on something that’s in the public interest or for a cause that’s bigger than myself. I also came from a family with a proud military heritage. My sister and I both went to the US Merchant Marine Academy—she went into the Marine Corps, and I went into the Navy.

In the military, I bridged the gap between commercial merchant mariners and the Navy as an officer in the Navy’s Strategic Sealift Program. This is a group comprised mainly of reservists. It’s a strange niche where, if you are a naval officer, you have a whole career operating various naval vessels but don’t have a license to operate vessels in a commercial sense. As a result, we have officers that are required to hold US Coast Guard commercial mariner licenses. If the United States needs additional sealift capabilities during a time of war—because 95% of goods move by sea—our officers are ready to operate US flagged containerships, oil tankers, etc. We also have vessels that do underway replenishment—you might be next to a Navy ship giving them fuel or using helicopters to do vertical replenishment, while sending palletized cargo back and forth. I’m still in the reserves, and I usually do my reserve with NATO’s Allied Maritime Command in the United Kingdom at the NATO Shipping Center, which is tasked to coordinate shipping between commercial and naval vessels. It’s a great home for strategic sealift personnel because we understand both worlds.

How did the military influence your career trajectory into energy?

A fellow alum from the US Merchant Marine Academy at Sandia National Laboratories, part of the US Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex, was looking at nuclear proliferation risks at international seaports and needed more staff that knew how ports and supply chains work to better understand how they could be used for nefarious purposes. I began to learn more about nuclear energy through this process, and now at Argonne National Laboratory, I support resources for the US nuclear industry to globally export their nuclear technology and research clean energy supply chains.

What are you most excited about in advanced energy developments, and what are you most concerned about?

It’s exciting to see that we’re holistically looking at how we’re going to meet clean energy goals domestically within established timelines, incorporating social justice, environmental impact, and circularity. It is exciting that a decarbonized economy is a priority, and then the scary thing is saying, ok, if we now have an increased demand, how are we going to ensure supply of critical materials? As somebody who models supply chains, it’s worrying to say that unless we continue to innovate, diversify supply, develop substitutes, and improve re-use and recycling, then our current reliance on geopolitically sensitive critical material demand will outpace supply.

Why is energy important to US national security?

The United States is a leading innovator of advanced reactor technology, which has exciting implications for smaller module designs that can be used for forward deployment needs of the military or to provide clean energy solutions for civil purposes. The US leadership role in nuclear nonproliferation has been based in part on the United States being one of the early deployers of clean nuclear power and technology for peaceful uses. As the United States starts ceding that leadership, other vendors such as Russia and China are creating 100-year umbilical cords to partner countries as they deploy those countries’ builds. Also, if the United States isn’t part of the global advanced reactor design deployment process, will we have as big of a stake and a role at the table for determining what the security and safeguards are going to be?

Additionally, a century ago, you would have thought that the number one thing changing our postures and priorities would be an adversary, yet a major impact to our military is climate change, sea level change, and the Arctic. These factors must be accounted for in how we maintain the readiness of our forces and of our assets, as well as the importance of being able to deploy clean energy solutions.

Do you have advice you would like to share with other veterans?

There are a lot of veterans who don’t see themselves naturally connecting with advanced energy based on their designator or MOS (Military Occupational Specialty). However, there are elements of what people have done in the military that could translate into a career in this space—whether from an engineering or supply chain perspective. There’s a degree of looking at people who have hands-on technical skills from the military and moving into clean energy technical jobs. Veterans’ diversity of thought and experience is valuable in this space, and I encourage veterans to seek where their skills transfer.

What are you most looking forward to about the Veterans Advanced Energy Fellowship?

First, there’s the cohort—meeting a diverse group of people with fascinating passions and backgrounds that have a common bond. Then, there’s the aspect of mentorship—whether it’s from other cohort members, experts that lend us their time, or meeting more senior people to get advice and gain new perspectives, which is always extremely valuable. I’m also excited that the annual Veterans Advanced Energy Summit is planned in Chicago. I’m excited to continue creating a Chicago hub of activity out of what we’re stirring up here.