Can community energy become nuclear?

Abstract

Community energy projects are typically associated with renewable, local, democratic and decentralised initiatives. The emergence of Small Modular Reactors and Microreactors challenges this historical gap between nuclear energy and energy communities by raising the possibility that nuclear technologies could effectively become part of community-oriented energy transitions. This Perspective argues that closing this gap cannot rely on modularity, smaller scale, technical, or even economic compatibility alone. Instead, it requires the construction of social embeddedness through credible safety and security, locally grounded knowledge and trust, and risk perceptions connected to community-valued strategic goals. Without these conditions, community nuclear energy risks becoming symbolic, thereby reproducing the historical separation of communities from nuclear energy and associated technologies.