Conclusion

The conclusion argues that the understanding of inheritance as taken up and critiqued in this manuscript allows us to see the sense in which energy production by way of nuclear fission is continuous with rather than a break from the logic of fossil fuel capitalism. This is because of the central role institutional survival and the conditions for that survival play in the justification of these forms of energy production and dissemination. This chapter also argues that Derrida offers us a conception of responsibility toward the future that challenges rather than reinforces logics that necessitate the resemblance of the future to the present without reducing responsibility to an invisible inheritance before inchoate future others. We conclude by offering a counter-reading of Tolkien, whose work is often taken up in the context of nuclear energy, that is consistent with the argument offered.