Systemic Risk, Polycrisis and the Nuclear Industry

This webinar will discuss the findings of the paper ‘Systemic risk and polycrisis - Potential for novel risks to impact the nuclear industry now and in the future’, which was published in May in the Nuclear Future journal.

Systemic risk describes those risks which arise from complex systems (defined as comprising many interacting parts, e.g., the economy), and polycrisis where those risks are realised and have the potential to generate runaway effects. Systemic risks may be driven by a range of hazard vectors including climate change, biodiversity loss, pandemics and political unrest, and can be observed in events of recent history such as financial crises and conflicts.

The nuclear industry at global scale may be described as a complex system and is also connected to and reliant on multiple other complex systems in wider society (e.g., manufacturing and supply chains). Although it has many resilient features the nuclear industry may therefore have exposure to the effects of systemic risk due to these interconnections, which presents both an opportunity and responsibility for the nuclear industry to recognise this and to start putting in place measures to build resilience. This webinar will provide an overview of the concept of systemic risk and the potential for it to interact with the global nuclear industry, and will outline proposed responses and measures that may help to build resilience now and into the future. 

This webinar is free and open to all.

Our speaker

Nick King is a Principal Environmental Consultant in the AtkinsRéalis nuclear business, providing technical services including radioactive waste management and dose assessment to UK and international clients in different stages of the nuclear lifecycle. Nick is also active in the academic and think tank sectors as an independent visiting researcher, with interests in systemic risk and the energy transition.

Header Image Credit: (c) Monodio Photography via Adobe Stock