ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the social studies of science and technology, and on the other, the political studies of post-communist, transforming societies. It focuses on the necessary circumstances for creating institutions of a civil society in post-Soviet Russia capable of running its nuclear power complex at internationally acceptable risk levels. The chapter discusses the social and the technical revolutions as well as the military dilemmas and purposes posed by nuclear development to humanity. The dissolution of the Soviet Union has led to the disruption of the economic ruble-zone and to the introduction of national currencies. The chapter summarizes the outlined features of nuclear policies and nuclear power debates in the post-Soviet era. It concludes that the structural and institutional changes in the atomic complex as well as the relative openness of the political and scientific debate on nuclear power demonstrate a certain progress of Russia and Ukraine toward the model of a democratic society.
