This chapter analyzes the interconnections between energy, security, and defense policies from a transition perspective in Finland. It explains the key characteristics of Finland’s energy and security regimes, and then examines administrative interaction and policy interplay. The interconnections are visible via three cases: expansion of wind power and the operation of air surveillance radars, framing of peat as a security question, and how the Finnish government addressed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Policy coherence between energy and security was limited before 2022, mainly focusing on stockpiling fuels and mitigating direct risks to the electricity network, for example, collaboration via the “Power Pool.” Geopolitical discussion pertaining to Russia was avoided in energy policy discussions. Energy policy integration into security and defense policy has occurred on a general level, for example, energy is now seen as a critical infrastructure and the energy efficiency of defense premises has been improved. Recent events show the need for improved coherence and collaboration.

This chapter introduces the topic of the book, namely the interconnections between zero-carbon energy transitions and security, and why this topic is of importance. It creates a setting for the following chapters by explaining the status of the energy transition in Europe, and introducing the academic fields the book draws from: sustainability transition studies, security studies, and studies of policy coherence and integration. The chapter also describes the research methods used and a brief background to the country cases, followed by a summary of the contents of the book.

The 1950s is known as a time of great prosperity as the gap between the richest and the poorest narrowed to its lowest point in history and as social mobility was at its highest. It was also a time in which an extraordinary array of commercial products entered our economy as the result of federal research and development programs. After America’s development of the atomic bomb, the Manhattan Project supported the transformation of the technology into more productive commercial uses. This role was repeated in the 1950s when the space race contributed to the federal development of the internet, together with a vast array of technologies such as cell phones and GPS services that we use today. However, there was a dark side to the 1950s. Racism was rampant and anxiety about nuclear disaster increased. In response to that anxiety, there were two movements in the United States. On the left there were movements for student democracy, civil rights, women’s rights, and the like. On the right, a new style of economics was emerging with great allegiance to markets and a commitment to reduce the size of government. Once again, we see the tension between markets and government which remains with us.

Chapter 1 begins with a brief sketch of the development of the domestic nuclear energy sector in South Africa (1950–1977). It illuminates how scientists were able to tap into sources of cooperation and funding to advance the nuclear energy industry during the 1960s and 1970s, following the Ploughshare Programme initiated under US President Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace initiative. Part of this chapter is devoted to the cooperation between South African, French and German firms. Recently obtained primary sources show how these collaborations enabled apartheid scientists to realize their vision of erecting the nuclear infrastructure to produce enriched uranium locally, ultimately feeding their nuclear weapons. I show how internal South African opposition to subjecting its nascent nuclear infrastructure to the emerging global non-proliferation regime manifested itself during that period, with repercussions for the coming decades.

From the perspective of the current book, nuclear reactors are boilers. They either act as steam boilers for Rankine steam cycle power plants (conventional deployment) or as heat exchangers to increase the temperature of the power cycle’s working fluid. As far as the second variant is concerned, it has not progressed from paper to practice. The power cycle in question is a closed cycle gas turbine. There are several candidates for the working fluid in such a cycle with supercritical CO2 being a prime candidate. This chapter covers the application of gas/steam turbine technology to nuclear power and other possibilities such as methane pyrolysis.

Aside from implementing WWS and storage technologies, the main suggestions for reducing or eliminating energy-related emissions have included using natural gas for electricity instead of coal, using natural gas or coal with carbon capture, using nuclear power instead of fossil fuels for electricity, using biomass with or without carbon capture for electricity, using liquid biofuels instead of gasoline or diesel for transportation, and using blue instead of green hydrogen. Non-energy-producing methods have also been proposed to remediate global warming. These include primarily synthetic direct air carbon capture and geoengineering. Policies that include these technologies along with WWS technologies are referred to as “all-of-the-above” policies, since they involve promoting most all technologies, regardless of their side effects, cost, effectiveness, or length of time between planning and operation. The justification for using these technologies is that they are a bridge between current carbon-intense technologies and WWS. This chapter discusses these non-WWS technologies and delineates the reasons why they are not needed or helpful for solving global warming, air pollution, and energy security problems.

The epilogue looks in several directions at the crossroads of nuclear power to consider the future of Atomic Junction and the place of afrofuturism around nuclear power. It begins with conversations with students at the School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences who have difficulty getting jobs after their degrees. In one direction, nuclear power is on a path to success with plans to import large power reactors in coming years. In another direction, nuclear power is on a rocky road given challenges managing land disputes, equipment costs, earthquake faults and even basic regulation of petrol stations. While there are now many atomic physicists in Ghana, the dream for scientific equity has not been fully realized as the plight of families in Haatso and Kwabenya revealed.

This chapter considers how Ghanaian citizens experience nuclear power in the Kwabenya environs. It establishes the setting of Atomic Junction, through archival evidence of territorial disputes in a borderland area home to Guan, Akan, and Ga families. From the 1960s, Ghanaian scientists, inspired by Nkrumah’s grand plan settled in the area to manage the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission. While they did not obtain the GHARR-1 until 1994, they led local families to believe that a reactor was installed around 1966. Given this widespread misunderstanding, the chapter asks how have people living near the reactor interpreted life on a nuclear frontier, or what Joe Masco has termed the “nuclear borderlands”? The chapter interprets how Ghanaians in Haatso, Kwabenya and other villages near the nuclear exclusion zone relate their experience with Atomic Lands (i.e. GAEC property) to the advent of nuclear spaces around the world where the potential for radioactivity excludes populations. It stresses the greater risk posed by petrol stations on the Haatso-Atomic Road, culminating in the 2017 explosion of a petrol tanker and a mushroom cloud at Atomic Junction.