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The geography of international nuclear cooperation: A new dataset and network analysis

Academic & Research
The CEU Campus
Thursday, February 16, 2017, 3:30 pm – 5:10 pm


Marta Vetier (CEU), Jessica Jewell (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, IIASA), and Daniel Garcia-Carbrera (IIASA)

Discussants: Aleh Cherp (CEU) and Carl Nordlund (Lund University)

Faculty-student seminar, EPRG event

Over three-dozen countries are actively considering starting nuclear power programs and another handful of operating countries have plans to expand their fleets. Most scholarship on nuclear energy has focused on nuclear energy as primarily a national project. Yet only 12 companies in 8 countries have the capacity to build a nuclear power plant. Thus any expansion of nuclear power will inevitably involve nuclear cooperation. In our article, we conduct the analysis of international cooperation related to nuclear energy: to analyze the international nuclear energy landscape and identify the biggest players in the evolving nuclear energy order.

Our dataset focuses on cooperation between states and companies in relation to nuclear energy: concrete technological cooperation related to nuclear power (financing, development, operation and decommissioning of nuclear power plants); capacity development for nuclear power (knowledge exchange and training, nuclear safety and security, planning, regulation and supportive infrastructure); and joint ventures of uranium mining and trade of uranium. It is based on open source data of agreements, memoranda of understanding, and policy statements on nuclear cooperation since 2000.

The dataset has been analysed with both statistical and network science methods to answer three research questions: (1) what are the main types of cooperation; (2) which countries are the most active in international nuclear cooperation; and (3) what roles do different countries play in different types of agreements.

The seminar will focus on the network science aspects of the article: theoretical underpinnings, conceptualization, methods and findings.

Bio of presenter

Marta Vetier is PhD candidate at CEU’s Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy. Her research interests include the use of network science methods to study governance and international cooperation. Prior to embarking on her PhD, she studied environmental sciences, policy and management and landscape planning, and has worked for 8 years in the private, governmental and non-governmental sectors.