The end of nuclear power generation in Italy and the decline of nuclear-related activities after 1987 could be interpreted as a definitive crisis of an economic sector that left behind only the difficult management of waste and a field of ruins. However, if we move to a local scale and analyze the relationship between nuclear infrastructures and the surrounding territories, we find different social and economic dynamics. This chapter examines the ways in which various actors in nuclear territories experience these industrial activities, imagine them, anticipate and accompany economic transformations, accept “defeats” and manage the “end” of nuclear power and, in particular, the management of waste, as both constraints and opportunities. It analyzes how the expectations of certain actors regarding the development of this sector and its economic spin-offs have sometimes been met, other times have led to disappointment, or they have changed their form and meaning. These issues are addressed through a study of the relations between industrial research facilities and the populations and actors of the small Piedmontese town of Saluggia and its surrounding municipalities in the province of Vercelli.