Transnational perspectives on the relationship between nuclear energy and society. With the aim of overcoming the disciplinary and national fragmentation that characterizes much research on nuclear energy Engaging the Atom brings together specialists from a variety of fields to analyze comparative case studies across Europe and the United States. It explores evolving relationships between society and the nuclear sector from the origins of civilian nuclear power until the present asking why nuclear energy has been more contentious in some countries than in others and why some countries have never gone nuclear or have decided to phase out nuclear while their neighbors have committed to the socalled nuclear renaissance.