A growing body of research has illuminated the powerful role played by social capital in influencing disaster and resilience outcomes. Popular vulnerability mapping frameworks, while well suited for capturing demographic characteristics such as age, race, and wealth, do not include sufficient proxies for social capital. This article proposes a concrete way to measure bonding, bridging, and linking social capital using widely available information. Our social capital index (SoCI) uses 19 indicators from publicly available U.S. census and Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) data for all counties across the contiguous United States. We demonstrate broad variations in the SoCI Index by mapping counties across the continental North America. Validity tests indicate outcomes similar or superior to other approaches such as the Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC) and the Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI). Our new mapping framework provides a more focused way for disaster managers, scholars, and local residents to understand how communities could cope with future disasters based on levels of social ties and cohesion.

This study explores the potential risks associated with the 65 U.S.-based commercial nuclear power plants and the distribution of those risks among the populations of both their respective host communities and of the communities located in outlying areas. First, it starts by examining the racial/ethnic composition of the host community populations, as well as the disparities in socioeconomic status that exist, if any, between the host communities and communities located in outlying areas. Second, it utilizes two independent-sample T tests to identify any differences in the sociodemographic compositions of the two areas. Third, it explores regional demographic trends by looking at the percent change in demographic variables in the host communities and communities located in outlying areas in 1990-2000 and 2000-2010. Findings reveal that during the past two decades more people were exposed to the risks as population living in the host communities increased.

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Nuclear hazards, linked to both U.S. weapons programs and civilian nuclear power, pose substantial environment justice issues. Nuclear power plant (NPP) reactors produce low-level ionizing radiation, high level nuclear waste, and are subject to catastrophic contamination events. Justice concerns include plant locations and the large potentially exposed populations, as well as issues in siting, nuclear safety, and barriers to public participation. Other justice issues relate to extensive contamination in the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, and the mining and processing industries that have supported it. To approach the topic, first we discuss distributional justice issues of NPP sites in the U.S. and related procedural injustices in siting, operation, and emergency preparedness. Then we discuss justice concerns involving the U.S. nuclear weapons complex and the ways that uranium mining, processing, and weapons development have affected those living downwind, including a substantial American Indian population. Next we examine the problem of high-level nuclear waste and the risk implications of the lack of secure long-term storage. The handling and deposition of toxic nuclear wastes pose new transgenerational justice issues of unprecedented duration, in comparison to any other industry. Finally, we discuss the persistent risks of nuclear technologies and renewable energy alternatives.

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