Introduction

Nuclear energy's initial associations with weapons, war and death were balanced and eventually overcome by politicians and scientists promising ‘Atoms for Peace’. That was the slogan to promote the civilian use of nuclear power in 1953. Now associated with a positive and bright future, nuclear power promised virtually infinite energy; according to Lewis Strauss, president of the US Atomic Energy Commission in 1954, nuclear power would be ‘too cheap to meter’ (Ford 1982, p. 50). Today, as we know, this bright vision has dimmed. Nuclear power is now associated with rising costs, problems of waste disposal, accidents, and fierce citizen opposition. Probably for the first time, a major online technology has been successfully challenged through a long and intense struggle including millions of citizens. The impacts of these struggles have been multi-faceted. The immediate substantial policy outcomes vary from country to country. In some places, despite promoters' efforts, nuclear power programmes were never realized. In others, programmes were realized only in part. In still others, nuclear power programmes were implemented in the face of significant opposition. Overall, however, the tide in the last two decades has turned and nuclear power has been discredited. Even in such countries as France and Belgium where nuclear power produces the lion's share of electricity supply, it is perceived as a necessary evil to be tolerated, at least for a few decades, because of huge capital investments.