ABSTRACT
For our purposes here, the word catastrophe is taken to mean a highly uncertain or at least low-probability event having possibly severe impacts on a large number of people. Energy-related events of a catastrophic nature might include grave environmental consequences of routine technological operations, such as possible worldwide climatological changes over time caused by cumulative carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of all fossil fuels. The interaction of politics with technology could also cause social catastrophes, and it is possible that-by broadening the availability of nuclear fuels and technology-the use of nuclear power could indirectly increase the probability of catastrophic nuclear warfare.
