Epilogue

This epilogue to the volume Nuclear Futures in the Post-Fukushima Age: Literature, Film, and Performance from Germany and Japan notes contemporary developments that confirm the urgency of reconsidering nuclear power in this current moment. The limits of human imagination—and the hubristic fantasy of control over nuclear risk—are demonstrated once more by the first large-scale war waged in a country dependent on nuclear power. Russia’s aggressive invasion of Ukraine has involved threats to the devastated Chernobyl site and to several of Europe’s largest operating nuclear power plants, Zaporizhzhia and Pivdennoukrainsk, highlighting anew the precarious nature of nuclear energy production. The challenging realities of the present moment demand a radical renovation of our imaginative and analytical capabilities.