Nuclear risk research project ideas

This sequence outlines possible research projects that seem tractable and like they could help us work out:

  1. how much to prioritize nuclear risk reduction relative to other important problems, and

  2. what interventions to prioritize within the area of nuclear risk reduction

Each project idea should make sense by itself, so you should feel free to read only the summary & introduction post and then the post(s) for any particular idea(s) you’re interested in. For most of the project ideas, I briefly discuss how the project could be tackled, why it might be useful, what sort of person might be a good fit for it, and whether EAs should try to fund/​convince non-EAs to do the project.

See the summary & introduction post for context and caveats. One caveat is that I largely wrote these posts in late 2021 (but didn’t get around to publishing them at the time) and haven’t updated them to reflect changes in the world or in my views.

Nu­clear risk re­search ideas: Sum­mary & introduction

Re­search pro­ject idea: In­ter­me­di­ate goals for nu­clear risk reduction

Re­search pro­ject idea: Tech­nolog­i­cal de­vel­op­ments that could in­crease risks from nu­clear weapons

Re­search pro­ject idea: Cli­mate, agri­cul­tural, and famine effects of nu­clear conflict

Re­search pro­ject idea: How should EAs re­act to fun­ders pul­ling out of the nu­clear risk space?

Re­search pro­ject idea: Im­pact as­sess­ment of nu­clear-risk-re­lated orgs, pro­grammes, move­ments, etc.

Re­search pro­ject idea: Overview of nu­clear-risk-re­lated pro­jects and stakeholders

Re­search pro­ject idea: Nu­clear EMPs

Re­search pro­ject idea: Pol­ling or mes­sage test­ing re­lated to nu­clear risk re­duc­tion and rele­vant goals/​interventions

Re­search pro­ject idea: Neart­er­mist cost-effec­tive­ness anal­y­sis of nu­clear risk reduction

Re­search pro­ject idea: Direct and in­di­rect effects of nu­clear fallout

Re­search pro­ject idea: How bad would the worst plau­si­ble nu­clear con­flict sce­nar­ios be?