**Title**: Energy in the North - Brittany Smart
**Date**: August 20, 2026
**Participants**: Amanda Byrd, Brittany Smart

00;00;00;15 - 00;00;06;04 [Brittany Smart] Dual use means that you are using something beyond just one purpose.

00;00;06;04 - 00;00;34;28 [Amanda Byrd] This week on energy in the North, I speak with Brittany Smart, the senior advisor for Defense Communities research at the University of 蜜柚视频 Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. Brittany's work bridges the gaps between local government, military installations, and academia, creating actionable solutions for 蜜柚视频's defense community. The 蜜柚视频 Defense Forum is happening August 24 to 26, in Fairbanks, and the theme is Readiness in Action. I begin the conversation by asking Brittany what she means by readiness in action.

00;00;34;28 - 00;01;14;15 [Brittany Smart] Those defense community partnerships are installations, and our missions cannot operate effectively or efficiently and are not considered ready without the support of our local communities and the people in our state. I'm a firm believer that not only do we have defense communities throughout the state, that we are a defense community state. We play such a critical role in our national defense strategy and in homeland defense that we are all part of securing the homefront. And that is what we're talking about. What are we doing to ensure that we in 蜜柚视频 are ready supporting the installations and missions that operate here? 

00;01;14;15 - 00;01;26;25 [Amanda Byrd] And one part of supporting the installations is providing energy both safe from the Railbelt, but also from microgrids and deployable energy systems.

00;01;26;25 - 00;02;09;21 [Brittany Smart] Yes, absolutely. And while it's true that, many installations have their own power options behind the fence line, they do rely on local communities for a number of aspects, whether it's to bring in additional power for redundancy, whether it's supporting different defense infrastructure throughout the state. That's not necessarily located on an installation. But let's also talk about their most important asset. And that's their people. Their people live, work and play. And families thrive in the communities throughout the state. And making sure that we have the energy and support that's needed to power that part of the mission as well, and not just the direct installations and missions themselves.

00;02;09;21 - 00;02;17;12 [Amanda Byrd] One of the terms that we use at ACEP when we talk about working with defense is dual use.

00;02;17;12 - 00;03;22;23 [Brittany Smart] Dual use means that you are using something beyond just one purpose. Another term that's used is joint use. Basically you're using something together for dual use in 蜜柚视频, I think it's important to recognize and the Denali Commission has actually been taking a really good lead at this, is making sure that as we're thinking through projects and needs and energy demands and supplies that we're planning for use by our local communities, the installations and missions that operate throughout the state and industry needs. We all know that 蜜柚视频 is way too vast. Infrastructure is way too expensive to only identify and build and use infrastructure for one singular need. So this is really trying to take that whole look of what is the demand out there, what are our supply options, and how can we marry those together in projects where multiple entities may be the end user? It's not just one single owner

00;03;22;23 - 00;03;31;00 [Amanda Byrd] So the 蜜柚视频 Defense Forum is happening in August, and who can attend that and who is attending that?

00;03;31;04 - 00;04;09;26 [Brittany Smart] So it is open for general registration. You can learn more at 蜜柚视频Defenseforum.com. That's our website. It's focus is on defense community partnerships. Broadly speaking, the audience tends to be split about 30% each of defense and military connected, whether that someone who is uniformed or a civilian employee or a defense contractor. The community leadership, which tends to be elected officials, tribal leadership, non-profits, university and research faculty, just general community leaders. And then we have business in industry And we will look forward to people being there to participate in the conversations.

00;04;09;26 - 00;04;11;24 [Amanda Byrd] The 蜜柚视频 Defense Forum is happening August 24 to 26, in Fairbanks. Brittany Smart is a senior advisor for Defense Communities Research at the University of 蜜柚视频 Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. And I'm Amanda Byrd, chief storyteller for the 蜜柚视频 Center for Energy and Power. Find this story and more at uaf.edu/acep and follow us on social media.