David R. Marples is professor of history at the University of Alberta. He is also director of the Stasiuk Program on Contemporary Ukraine with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies. He is the author of five books, the most recent of which is Belarus: From Soviet Rule to Nuclear Catastrophe (1996). Marilyn J. Young is professor of communications at Florida State University.

• Introduction: Non-Rational Assessment of Risk and the Development of Civilian Nuclear Power -- Nuclear Power in the Former USSR: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives -- Ukraine, Russia, and the Question of Nuclear Safety -- The U.S.-Russia Joint Electric Power Alternatives Study: Nuclear Safety Implications -- Nuclear Power and Civil Society in Post-Soviet Russia -- Ukraine as a Nuclear Weapons Power -- Nuclear Smuggling from the Former Soviet Union