Authors
Tatiana Kasperski1; 1 Sodertorn University, Sweden Discussion
This paper will examine how collective representations of Ukraine’s nuclear future have changed through the post-Chernobyl and post-Soviet decades, and how they were affected by the policies of state, nation-building and conflicts with Russia. It draws on the notion of ‘national nuclear imaginary’ describing visions of the nation’s future that the state wants to attain through the development of the nuclear enterprise, and that at the same time justify massive investments into atomic energy. The participants in the Ukrainian national independence movement of the late 1980s considered Soviet nuclear energy projects, and the Chernobyl disaster, as a proof of Russia’s colonial power in Ukraine. From the 1990s and 2000s Ukrainian elites began to see atomic power as a key to overcome economic and political weaknesses, end dependence on Russian oil and gas and insure a bright national future. From the 2010s conflicts with Russia, and Ukraine’s technological and fuel dependence on Russia, made obvious the vulnerability of Ukraine’s nuclear sector. This somewhat tempered the country's nuclear enthusiasm. Amid the ongoing war and attendant, unprecedented risks to nuclear safety, however, new nuclear imaginaries have emerged that emphasize the importance of nuclear energy in the country's future reconstruction and green transition. 
