Page Stoutland, Ph.D.
Consultant, Scientific and Technical Affairs
Understanding the Global Effects of Nuclear Conflict in the 21st Century
About the image
The damaging effects of the light, heat, blast, and radiation caused by a nuclear explosion have been known to scientists since the end of the Second World War
Challenge
Public awareness and expert understanding of the climatic, economic, humanitarian, and societal effects of a potential exchange of nuclear weapons is limited or out of date.
Action
Develop a research agenda for scientific and policy analysis of nuclear weapons effects to increase awareness, advance understanding and catalyze action to reduce the existential risks of nuclear weapons use.
Results
Inform nuclear policies and decision making with clear and current analysis of nuclear effects.
The damaging effects of the light, heat, blast, and radiation caused by a nuclear explosion have been known to scientists since the end of the Second World War and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, much of the existing literature on the climatic, economic, humanitarian, and societal effects of a nuclear exchange is out of date and inconclusive.
NTI is providing a platform for discussion among scientists and policy experts from around the world to build on previous scientific analysis and international discourse on nuclear weapons effects. By engaging experts to build consensus and identify gaps in the current research, we can improve our understanding of the global implications of nuclear use and more accurately inform nuclear policy decision-makers.
Together, participants of this project will contribute to the development of a modern research agenda that will clarify the likely catastrophic effects of a nuclear weapons exchange and inform nuclear policymakers and public discourse.
2023
NTI Highlights Nuclear Effects Research at the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
NTI Program Officer Patricia Jaworek joined a panel discussion on the devastating humanitarian effects of nuclear weapons and shared her research on the subject.
NTI Releases New Paper on Global Effects of Nuclear Conflict: Implications for Nuclear Policymaking, Then and Now
The paper highlights the need for renewed attention to the catastrophic effects of nuclear conflict as a crucial step toward reducing the risk of nuclear use.
Global Effects of Nuclear Conflict: Implications for Nuclear Policymaking, Then and Now
This paper highlights the need for renewed attention to the catastrophic effects of nuclear conflict as a crucial step toward reducing the risk of nuclear use.
2022
NTI Convenes Conference on Global Effects of Nuclear Weapons
More than 40 researchers and scientists with expertise in nuclear security, climate science, agriculture and food security, development policy, engineering, international relations, and economics gathered in person and virtually for a hybrid conference on global nuclear effects convened by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) on June 1-2, 2022.
Depicting Nuclear Risk Accurately: The Likely Global Effects of Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century
The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 made clear the destructive force of the light, heat, blast, and radiation from a nuclear explosion. But what exactly would the effects of a nuclear explosion mean for the world today?