Orion Shall Rise

Centuries after a devastating nuclear world war, humanity is divided into a few nations, some struggling towards rebuilding industrial civilization, some opposed, but all united in an anti-nuclear stance. When the new leader of Europe is deposed by a Gaean faction, secretly supported by foreign powers, he escapes and becomes involved in a secret plot by the quasi-libertarian industrial civilization of the North American West Coast to break free from domination by the sustainability-oriented Pacific Islanders by using unexploded nuclear weapons to propel a spaceship; only to find even more secret subplots among those involved.