Conclusion
By reframing our understanding of nuclear issues, we can see more clearly the intersection of the so-called peaceful atom with seemingly disconnected topics, including racism, colonialism and neocolonialism, propaganda, surveillance and control, weapons programs, and war. When we acknowledge these connections, the centrality of a cornucopian narrative emerges—one that counts on remaking nature, quickening its pulse, or avoiding environmental dangers—as an unmistakable feature of atomic energy when pursued by governments. If that is the case, we must begin to acknowledge that these particular ideas are deeply embedded in the same range of difficult and ugly global questions. The cornucopian promise of the atom has been an extraordinary useful instrument of power. It was not a marginal issue in the global nuclear order. Instead, it has been the one indispensable piece of it.