The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, national, or international level. Major anti-nuclear groups include Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Peace Action, Seneca Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service. The movement's initial objective was nuclear disarmament, though since the late 1960s, opposition has also included the use of nuclear power. Many anti-nuclear groups oppose both nuclear power and nuclear weapons. The formation of green parties in the 1970s and 1980s was often a direct result of anti-nuclear politics. Scientists and diplomats have debated nuclear weapons policy since before the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The public became concerned about nuclear weapons testing from about 1954, following extensive nuclear testing, including the Castle Bravo disaster. In 1963, many countries ratified the Partial Test Ban Treaty, which prohibited atmospheric nuclear testing. Some local opposition to nuclear power emerged in the early 1960s. In the late 1960s some members of the scientific community began to express their concerns. In the early 1970s, there were large protests about the proposed Wyhl Nuclear Power Plant, in southern Germany. The project was cancelled in 1975, and anti-nuclear success at Wyhl inspired opposition to nuclear power in other parts of Europe and North America. Nuclear power became an issue of major public protest in the 1970s and while opposition to nuclear power continues, increasing public support for nuclear power has re-emerged over the last decade in light of growing awareness of global warming and renewed interest in all types of clean energy (see the Pro-nuclear movement). A protest against nuclear power occurred in July 1977 in Bilbao, Spain, with up to 200,000 people in attendance. Following the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, an anti-nuclear protest was held in New York City, involving 200,000 people. In 1981, Germany's largest anti-nuclear power demonstration took place to protest against the Brokdorf Nuclear Power Plant west of Hamburg; some 100,000 people came face to face with 10,000 police officers. The largest protest was held on 12 June 1982, when one million people demonstrated in New York City against nuclear weapons. A 1983 nuclear weapons protest in West Berlin had about 600,000 participants. In May 1986, following the Chernobyl disaster, an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people marched in Rome to protest against the Italian nuclear program. In Australia, unions, peace activists, and environmentalists opposed uranium mining from the 1970s onwards, and rallies bringing together hundreds of thousands of people to oppose nuclear weapons peaked in the mid- 1980s. In the US, public opposition preceded the shutdown of the Shoreham, Yankee Rowe, Millstone 1, Rancho Seco, Maine Yankee, and many other nuclear power plants. For many years after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, nuclear power was off the policy agenda in most countries, and the anti-nuclear power movement seemed to have won its case, so some anti-nuclear groups disbanded. In the 2000s, however, following public relations activities by the nuclear industry, advances in nuclear reactor designs, and concerns about climate change, nuclear power issues came back into energy policy discussions in some countries. The 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident subsequently undermined the nuclear power industry's proposed renaissance and revived opposition to nuclear power worldwide, putting governments on the defensive. As of 2016, countries such as Australia, Austria, Denmark, Greece, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Norway have no nuclear power stations and remain opposed to nuclear power. Germany, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland are phasing-out nuclear power. Sweden formerly had a nuclear phase-out policy, aiming to end nuclear power generation in Sweden by 2010. On 5 February 2009, the Government of Sweden announced an agreement allowing for the replacement of existing reactors, effectively ending the phase-out policy. Globally, the number of operable reactors has remained nearly the same over the last 30 years, and nuclear electricity production has been steadily growing since the Fukushima disaster.
History and issues
Roots of the movement
The application of nuclear technology, as a source of energy and as an instrument of war, has been controversial. These issues are discussed in nuclear weapons debate, nuclear power debate, and uranium mining debate. Scientists and diplomats have debated nuclear weapons policy since before the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The public became concerned about nuclear weapons testing from about 1954, following extensive nuclear testing in the Pacific, with some calling it nuclear imperialism and colonialism. In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, about 50,000 women brought together by Women Strike for Peace marched in 60 cities in the United States to demonstrate against nuclear weapons. In 1963, many countries ratified the Partial Test Ban Treaty which prohibited atmospheric nuclear testing. Some local opposition to nuclear power emerged in the early 1960s, and, in the late 1960s, some members of the scientific community began expressing their concerns. In the early 1970s, there were large protests about the proposed Wyhl Nuclear Power Plant in southern Germany. The project was cancelled in 1975, and anti-nuclear success at Wyhl inspired opposition to nuclear power in other parts of Europe and North America. Nuclear power became an issue of major public protest in the 1970s.
Fossil fuels industry The fossil fuel industry starting from the 1950s was engaging in campaigns against the nuclear industry which it perceived as a threat to their commercial interests. Organizations such as the American Petroleum Institute, the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association and Marcellus Shale Coalition were engaged in anti-nuclear lobbying in the late 2010s and from 2019, large fossil fuel suppliers started advertising campaigns portraying fossil gas as a "perfect partner for renewables" (wording from Shell and Statoil advertisements). Groups like the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund and Natural Resources Defense Council are receiving grants from other fossil fuel companies. As of 2011, a strategy paper released by Greenpeace titled "Battle of Grids" proposed gradual replacement of nuclear power by fossil gas plants which would provide "flexible backup for wind and solar power". However, Greenpeace has since distanced itself from advocating for fossil gas, instead proposing grid energy storage as a solution to issues caused by intermittent renewable energy. In Germany, the Energiewende, which was advertised as a shift to renewable energy but included a gradual phaseout of nuclear power from 2000 to the end of 2022, caused, among other things, a rise in fossil gas power production from 49.2 TWh in 2000 to 94.7 TWh in 2020. In the same interval total electricity generation barely changed (576.6 TWh in 2000 vs 574.2 TWh in 2020) while it did rise and fall in the meantime, reaching a peak of 652.9 TWh in 2017. As much of that fossil gas was, and remains, imported from Russia, controversial pipeline projects like Nord Stream 1 were built to meet rising German gas demand. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine it came to light that significant amounts of Russian lobbying was involved in both the continued anti-nuclear movement in Germany and the anti-fracking movement.
Anti-nuclear perspectives
Concerns about nuclear weapons
From an anti-nuclear point of view, there is a threat to modern civilization from global nuclear war by accidental or deliberate nuclear strike. Some climate scientists estimate that a war between two countries that resulted in 100 Hiroshima-size atomic explosions would cause significant loss of life, in the tens of millions, from climatic effects alone, as well as disable future generations. Soot thrown up into the atmosphere could blanket the earth, causing food chain disruption in what is termed a nuclear winter. Many anti-nuclear weapons groups cite the 1996 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice, Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, in which it found that 'the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict'. Ridding the world of nuclear weapons has been a cause for pacifists for decades. But more recently, mainstream politicians and retired military leaders have advocated nuclear disarmament. In January 2007 an article in The Wall Street Journal, authored by Henry Kissinger, Bill Perry, George Shultz and Sam Nunn. These men were veterans of the Cold War who believed in using nuclear weapons for deterrence. But they now reversed their previous position and asserted that instead of making the world safer, nuclear weapons had become a source of extreme concern. Since the 1970s, some countries have built their own second-strike capability of massive deterrence in the event of a military attack with weapons of mass destruction. Two examples of this second-strike capability are Israel's Samson Option strategy and Russia's Dead Hand system. During the era of nuclear weapons testing, many local communities were affected, and some are still affected by uranium mining and radioactive waste disposal. It should, however, be noted that countries can possess nuclear weapons without possessing nuclear power plants (as is almost certainly the case with Israel) or indeed the reverse, as is the case with most users of nuclear power, past and present.
Concerns about nuclear power
There are large variations in people's beliefs regarding nuclear power, including the technology itself, its deployment, climate change, and energy security. There is a wide spectrum of views and concerns over nuclear power and it remains a controversial area of public policy. When compared to other energy sources, nuclear power has one of the lowest death rates per unit of energy produced – 0.07 per TWh, as compared to over 32 per TWh in the case of brown coal. This figure is driven by a 2005 WHO projection of up to 4000 stochastic cancer deaths that could result from the Chernobyl disaster. The UNSCEAR reports in its 2008 summary on Chernobyl that no increases in cancer incidence (other than thyroid cancer) have been observed to date that can be attributed to radiation from the accident. Many studies have shown that the public "perceives nuclear power as a very risky technology" and, around the world, nuclear energy declined in popularity in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, but it has recently rebounded in response to the climate crisis. Anti-nuclear critics see nuclear power as a dangerous, expensive way to boil water to generate electricity. Opponents of nuclear power have raised many related concerns:
Nuclear accidents: a safety concern that the core of a nuclear power plant could overheat and melt down, releasing radioactivity. Nuclear Fuel Mining: mining waste of nuclear fuels like uranium and thorium, results in its radioactive decay. That causes radium pollution and radon pollution in environment and ultimately affects public health. Radioactive waste disposal: a concern that nuclear power results in large amounts of radioactive waste, some of which remains dangerous for very long periods. Nuclear proliferation: a concern that some types of nuclear reactor designs use and/or produce fissile material which could be used in nuclear weapons. High cost: a concern that nuclear power plants are very expensive to build, and that clean up from nuclear accidents is highly expensive and can take decades. Attacks on nuclear plants: a concern that terrorists or criminals could target nuclear facilities. Curtailed civil liberties: a concern that the risk of nuclear accidents, proliferation, and terrorism may be used to justify restraints on citizen rights. Of these concerns, nuclear accidents and disposal of long-lived radioactive waste have probably had the greatest public impact worldwide. Anti-nuclear campaigners point to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear emergency as proof that nuclear power can never be 100% safe. Costs resulting from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster are likely to exceed 12 trillion yen ($100 billion) and the clean up effort to decontaminate affected areas and decommission the plant is estimated to take 30 to 40 years. Excluding accidents, the standard amount of high-level radioactive waste is claimed to be manageable (the UK has produced just 2150 m3 during its 60-year nuclear program), with the Geological Society of London alleging that it can be effectively recycled and stored safely.
In his book Global Fission: The Battle Over Nuclear Power, Jim Falk explores connections between technological concerns and political concerns. Falk suggests that concerns of citizen groups or individuals who oppose nuclear power have often focused initially on the "range of physical hazards which accompany the technology" and lead to a "concern over the political relations of the nuclear industry". Baruch Fischhoff, a social scientist, said that many people really do not trust the nuclear industry. Wade Allison, a physicist, said "radiation is safe & all nations should embrace nuclear technology" M.V. Ramana says that "distrust of the social institutions that manage nuclear energy is widespread", and a 2001 survey by the European Commission found that "only 10.1 percent of Europeans trusted the nuclear industry". This public distrust is periodically reinforced by nuclear safety violations or through ineffectiveness or corruption of the nuclear regulatory authorities. Once lost, says Ramana, trust is extremely difficult to regain. Faced with public antipathy, the nuclear industry has "tried a variety of strategies to persuade the public to accept nuclear power," including publishing numerous "fact sheets" that address public concerns. M.V. Ramana says that none of these strategies has been very successful. Nuclear proponents have tried to regain public support by offering newer, purportedly safer, reactor designs. These designs include those that incorporate passive safety and small modular reactors. While these reactor designs "are intended to inspire trust, they may have an unintended effect: creating distrust of older reactors that lack the touted safety features". Since 2000 the nuclear power was promoted as potential solution to the greenhouse effect and climate change as nuclear power emits no or negligible amounts of carbon dioxide during operations. Anti-nuclear groups highlighted that other stages of the nuclear fuel chain – mining, milling, transport, fuel fabrication, enrichment, reactor construction, decommissioning, and waste management – rely on fossil fuels and thus emit carbon dioxide. As this is the case with any energy sources, including renewable energy, IPCC analyzed total life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions, which account for all emissions during manufacturing, installation, operations and decommissioning. With 12 gCO2eq/kWh, nuclear power remains one of the lowest-emitting energy sources available.
In 2011, a French court fined Électricité de France (EDF) €1.5m and jailed two senior employees for spying on Greenpeace, including hacking into Greenpeace's computer systems. Greenpeace was awarded €500,000 in damages. Some energy-related studies conclude that energy efficiency programs and renewable power technologies are better energy options than nuclear power plants.
Other technologies The international nuclear fusion project, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), is constructing the world's largest and most advanced experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor in southern France. A collaboration among the European Union (EU), India, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea, and the United States, the project aims to transition from experimental studies of plasma physics to electricity-producing fusion power plants. In 2005, Greenpeace International issued a press statement criticizing government funding of the ITER, believing the money should have been diverted to renewable energy sources and claiming that fusion energy would result in nuclear waste and nuclear weapons proliferation issues. A French association including about 700 anti-nuclear groups, Sortir du nucléaire (Get Out of Nuclear Energy), claimed that ITER was a hazard because scientists did not yet know how to manipulate the high-energy deuterium and tritium hydrogen isotopes used in the fusion process. According to most anti-nuclear groups, nuclear fusion power "remains a distant dream". The World Nuclear Association have said that fusion "presents so far insurmountable scientific and engineering challenges". Construction of the ITER facility began in 2007, but the project has run into many delays and budget overruns. Several milestones of the project have already been completed, but the First Plasma completion date has been discussed and postponed multiple times, with various conclusions. In late 2016, the ITER council agreed on an updated project schedule, with a planned First Plasma opening by 2025, nine years after the originally anticipated opening. Some anti-nuclear groups advocate reduced reliance on reactor-produced medical radioisotopes, through the use of alternative radioisotope production and alternative clinical technologies. Cyclotrons are being increasingly used to produce medical radioisotopes to the point where nuclear reactors are no longer needed to make the most common medical isotopes. However, the development of newer, more reliable and efficient particle accelerators also fuels the proposals for subcritical reactors with a Spallation Neutron Source being used for nuclear transmutation of "legacy" waste and/or power generation. Such reactors could also be used to produce medical isotopes. Some isotopes, like Cobalt-60 are currently mostly produced in reactors like the Canadian CANDU.Plutonium-238, the preferred material for radioisotope thermal generators for use in spacecraft, faced a significant shortage after a single reactor producing it shut down, before the U.S. established a capacity to produce it from Neptunium-237 at one of their laboratories.
Nuclear-free alternatives
Anti-nuclear groups say that reliance on nuclear energy can be reduced by adopting energy conservation and energy efficiency measures. Energy efficiency can reduce energy consumption while providing the same level of energy "services". Renewable energy flows involve natural phenomena such as sunlight, wind, tides, plant growth, and geothermal heat, as the International Energy Agency explains:
Renewable energy is derived from natural processes that are replenished constantly. In its various forms, it derives directly from the sun, or from heat generated deep within the earth. Included in the definition is electricity and heat generated from solar, wind, ocean, hydropower, biomass, geothermal resources, and biofuels and hydrogen derived from renewable resources. Anti-nuclear groups also favour the use of renewable energy, such as hydro, wind power, solar power, geothermal energy and biofuel. According to the International Energy Agency renewable energy technologies are essential contributors to the energy supply portfolio, as they contribute to world energy security and provide opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gases. Fossil fuels are being replaced by clean, climate-stabilizing, non-depletable sources of energy. According to Lester R. Brown:
…the transition from coal, oil, and gas to wind, solar, and geothermal energy is well under way. In the old economy, energy was produced by burning something – oil, coal, or natural gas – leading to the carbon emissions that have come to define our economy. The new energy economy harnesses the energy in wind, the energy coming from the sun, and heat from within the earth itself.
In 2014 global wind power capacity expanded 16% to 369,553 MW. Yearly wind energy production is also growing rapidly and has reached around 4% of worldwide electricity usage, 11.4% in the EU, and it is widely used in Asia, and the United States. In 2014, worldwide installed photovoltaics capacity increased to 177 gigawatts (GW), sufficient to supply 1 per cent of global electricity demands. As of 2020 wind power expansion slowed down due to protests of residents and environmentalists. Solar thermal energy stations operate in the United States and Spain, and as of 2016, the largest of these is the 392 MW Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California. The world's largest geothermal power installation is The Geysers in California, with a rated capacity of 750 MW. Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world, involving production of ethanol fuel from sugar cane, and ethanol now provides 18% of the country's automotive fuel. Ethanol fuel is also widely available in the United States. As of 2020, the expansion of biomass as a fuel, which was previously praised by environmental organizations such as Greenpeace, has been criticized for environmental damage. Greenpeace advocates reducing fossil fuel use by 50% by 2050 and phasing out nuclear power, contending that innovative technologies can increase energy efficiency and suggesting that, by 2050, most electricity will come from renewable sources. The International Energy Agency estimates that nearly 50% of global electricity supplies will need to come from renewable energy sources to halve carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 and minimise climate change impacts. Mark Z. Jacobson says producing all new energy with wind power, solar power, and hydropower by 2030 is feasible, and existing energy supply arrangements could be replaced by 2050. Barriers to implementing the renewable energy plan are seen to be "primarily social and political, not technological or economic". Jacobson says that energy costs with a wind, solar, and water system should be similar to today's energy costs. Many have since referred to Jacobson's work to justify advocating for all 100% renewables, however, in February 2017, a group of twenty-one scientists published a critique of Jacobson's work and found that his analysis involves "errors, inappropriate methods and implausible assumptions" and failed to provide "credible evidence for rejecting the conclusions of previous analyses that point to the benefits of considering a broad portfolio of energy system options." Critics state that the anti-nuclear arguments overestimate the benefits of renewable energy and fail to consider land per unit of energy inefficiencies and data that claims to forecast, "...biomass, wind, and solar power are set to occupy an area equivalent to the size of the European Union by 2050."
Anti-nuclear organizations
The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement which operates at the local, national, and international level. Various types of groups have identified themselves with the movement:
direct action groups, such as the Clamshell Alliance and Shad Alliance environmental groups, such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace consumer protection groups, such as Ralph Nader's Critical Mass professional organisations, such as International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War political parties such as European Free Alliance Anti-nuclear groups have undertaken public protests and acts of civil disobedience, including occupations of nuclear plant sites. Other salient strategies have included lobbying, petitioning government authorities, influencing public policy through referendum campaigns, and involvement in elections. Anti-nuclear groups have also tried to influence policy implementation through litigation and by participating in licensing proceedings. Anti-nuclear power organisations have emerged in every country that has had a nuclear power programme. Protest movements against nuclear power first emerged in the United States at the local level and quickly spread to Europe and the rest of the world. National nuclear campaigns emerged in the late 1970s. Fuelled by the Three Mile Island accident and the Chernobyl disaster, the anti-nuclear power movement mobilised political and economic forces that, for some years, "made nuclear energy untenable in many countries". In the 1970s and 1980s, the formation of green parties was often a direct result of anti-nuclear politics (e.g., in Germany and Sweden). Some of these anti-nuclear power organisations are reported to have developed considerable expertise on nuclear power and energy issues. In 1992, the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that "his agency had been pushed in the right direction on safety issues because of the pleas and protests of nuclear watchdog groups".
International organizations European Nuclear Disarmament, which held annual conventions in the 1980s involving thousands of anti-nuclear weapons activists mostly from Western Europe but also from Eastern Europe, the United States, and Australia. Friends of the Earth International, a network of environmental organizations in 77 countries. Since 2014, however, Friends of the Earth (UK) has softened its stance; the fierce opposition against nuclear reactors has shifted into a more pragmatic opposition, which still opposes the construction of new nuclear (fission) reactors, but doesn't campaign against closing down the existing ones anymore. Global Zero, an international non-partisan group of 300 world leaders dedicated to achieving the elimination of nuclear weapons. Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, an international partnership of 83 nations. Greenpeace International, a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over 41 countries and headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands. International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which had affiliates in 41 nations in 1985, representing 135,000 physicians; IPPNW was awarded the UNESCO Peace Education Prize in 1984 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. Nuclear Information and Resource Service OPANAL Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, a global network of over 700 parliamentarians from more than 75 countries working to prevent nuclear proliferation Pax Christi International, a Catholic group which took a "sharply anti-nuclear stand" Ploughshares Fund Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs Socialist International, the world body of social democratic parties Sōka Gakkai, a peace-oriented Buddhist organisation, which held anti-nuclear exhibitions in Japanese cities during the late 1970s, and gathered 10 million signatures on petitions calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs World Disarmament Campaign World Information Service on Energy, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands World Union for Protection of Life
Other groups National and local anti-nuclear groups are listed at Anti-nuclear groups in the United States and List of anti-nuclear groups.
Symbols
Activities
Large protests
In 1971, the town of Wyhl, on the Rhine in Southern Germany, was proposed as the site of the Wyhl Nuclear Power Plant. In the years that followed, public opposition steadily mounted, and large protests occurred. Television coverage of police dragging away farmers and their wives helped to turn nuclear power into a major issue. In 1975, an administrative court withdrew the construction licence for the plant. The Wyhl experience encouraged the formation of citizen action groups near other planned nuclear sites. In 1972, the nuclear disarmament movement maintained a presence in the Pacific, largely in response to French nuclear testing there. New Zealand activists sailed boats into the test zone, interrupting the testing program. In Australia, thousands of people joined protest marches in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney. Scientists issued statements demanding an end to the nuclear tests. In Fiji, anti-nuclear activists formed an Against Testing on Mururoa organization. In the Basque Country (Spain and France), a strong anti-nuclear movement emerged in 1973, ultimately leading to the abandonment of most planned nuclear power projects. On 14 July 1977, in Bilbao, between 150,000 and 200,000 people protested against the Lemoniz Nuclear Power Plant. This has been called the "biggest ever anti-nuclear demonstration". In France, there were mass protests in the early 1970s, organized at nearly every planned nuclear site. Between 1975 and 1977, some 175,000 people protested against nuclear power in ten demonstrations. In 1977 there was a massive demonstration at the Superphénix breeder reactor in Creys-Malvillein which culminated in violence. In West Germany, between February 1975 and April 1979, some 280,000 people were involved in seven demonstrations at nuclear sites. Several site occupations were also attempted. Following the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, some 120,000 people attended a demonstration against nuclear power in Bonn. In the Philippines, there were many protests in the late 1970s and 1980s against the proposed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, which was built but never operated due to safety concerns and issues regarding corruption. In 1981, Germany's largest anti-nuclear power demonstration protested against the construction of the Brokdorf Nuclear Power Plant west of Hamburg. Some 100,000 people came face-to-face with 10,000 police officers. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the revival of the nuclear arms race triggered a new wave of protests about nuclear weapons. Older organizations such as the Federation of Atomic Scientists revived; newer organizations appeared, including the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign and Physicians for Social Responsibility. In the UK, on 1 April 1983, about 70,000 people linked arms to form a 14-mile-long human chain between three nuclear weapons centres in Berkshire. On Palm Sunday 1982, 100,000 Australians participated in anti-nuclear rallies in the nation's largest cities. Year by year, the rallies grew, drawing 350,000 participants in 1985. On 29 October 1983, the Committee Cruise Missiles No organised a demonstration in The Hague, Netherlands, which was attended by 550,000 people, and was the largest demonstration in the history of the Netherlands. In May 1986, following the Chernobyl disaster, clashes between anti-nuclear protesters and West German police were common. More than 400 people were injured in mid-May at demonstrations against the Wackersdorf reprocessing plant (WAA) being built near Wackersdorf. The 5th Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival followed in July. Also in May 1986, an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people marched in Rome to protest against the Italian nuclear program, and 50,000 marched in Milan. Hundreds of people walked from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in 1986 in what is referred to as the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament. The march took nine months to traverse 3,700 miles (6,000 km), advancing approximately fifteen miles per day. The anti-nuclear organisation "Nevada Semipalatinsk" was formed in 1989 and was one of the first major anti-nuclear groups in the former Soviet Union. It attracted thousands of people to its protests and campaigns, which eventually led to the closure of the nuclear test site in north-east Kazakhstan in 1991. The World Uranium Hearing was held in Salzburg, Austria in September 1992. Anti-nuclear speakers from all continents, including indigenous speakers and scientists, testified to the health and environmental problems of uranium mining and processing, nuclear power, nuclear weapons, nuclear tests, and radioactive waste disposal. People who spoke at the 1992 Hearing included Thomas Banyacya, Katsumi Furitsu, Manuel Pino and Floyd Red Crow Westerman.
Protests in the United States
There were many anti-nuclear protests in the United States which captured national public attention during the 1970s and 1980s. These included the well-known Clamshell Alliance protests at Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant and the Abalone Alliance protests at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, where thousands of protesters were arrested. Other large protests followed the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. A large anti-nuclear demonstration was held in May 1979 in Washington, D.C., when 65,000 people, including the Governor of California, attended a march and rally against nuclear power. In New York City on 23 September 1979, almost 200,000 people attended a protest against nuclear power. Anti-nuclear power protests preceded the shutdown of the Shoreham, Yankee Rowe, Millstone I, Rancho Seco, Maine Yankee, and about a dozen other nuclear power plants. On 12 June 1982, one million people demonstrated in New York City's Central Park against nuclear weapons and for an end to the cold war arms race. It was the largest anti-nuclear protest and the largest political demonstration in American history. International Day of Nuclear Disarmament protests were held on 20 June 1983, at 50 sites across the United States. In 1986, hundreds of people walked from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament. There were many Nevada Desert Experience protests and peace camps at the Nevada Test Site during the 1980s and 1990s. On 1 May 2005, 40,000 anti-nuclear/anti-war protesters marched past the United Nations in New York, 60 years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was the largest anti-nuclear rally in the U.S. for several decades. In the 2000s, there were protests about, and campaigns against, several new nuclear reactor proposals in the United States. In 2013, four aging, uncompetitive, reactors were permanently closed: San Onofre 2 and 3 in California, Crystal River 3 in Florida, and Kewaunee in Wisconsin. Vermont Yankee, in Vernon, is scheduled to close in 2014, following many protests. Protesters in New York State are seeking to close Indian Point Energy Center, in Buchanan, 30 miles from New York City.
Recent developments For many years after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, nuclear power was off the policy agenda in most countries, and the anti-nuclear power movement seemed to have won its case. Some anti-nuclear groups disbanded. In the 2000s (decade), however, following public relations activities by the nuclear industry, advances in nuclear reactor designs, and concerns about climate change, nuclear power issues came back into energy policy discussions in some countries. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster subsequently undermined the nuclear power industry's proposed comeback.
2004–2006 In January 2004, up to 15,000 anti-nuclear protesters marched in Paris against a new generation of nuclear reactors, the European Pressurised Water Reactor (EPWR). On 1 May 2005, 40,000 anti-nuclear/anti-war protesters marched past the United Nations in New York, 60 years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was the largest anti-nuclear rally in the U.S. for several decades. In Britain, there were many protests about the government's proposal to replace the aging Trident weapons system with a newer model. The largest protest had 100,000 participants and, according to polls, 59 per cent of the public opposed the move.
2007–2009
On 17 March 2007, simultaneous protests, organised by Sortir du nucléaire, were staged in five French towns to protest construction of EPR plants; Rennes, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille, and Strasbourg. In June 2007, 4,000 residents, students, and anti-nuclear activists took to the streets in the city of Kudus in Indonesia's Central Java, calling on the Government to abandon plans to build a nuclear power plant there. In February 2008, a group of concerned scientists and engineers called for the closure of the Kazantzakis-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. The International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament took place in Oslo in February 2008. The Government of Norway, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and the Hoover Institute organized it. The Conference was entitled Achieving the Vision of a World Free of Nuclear Weapons and had the purpose of building consensus between nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states in relation to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. During a weekend in October 2008, some 15,000 people disrupted the transport of radioactive nuclear waste from France to a dump in Germany. This was one of the largest such protests in many years and, according to Der Spiel, it signals a revival of the anti-nuclear movement in Germany. In 2009, the coalition of green parties in the European parliament, who are unanimous in their anti-nuclear position, increased their presence in the parliament from 5.5% to 7.1% (52 seats). In October 2008, in the United Kingdom, more than 30 people were arrested during one of the largest anti-nuclear protests at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston for 10 years. The demonstration marked the start of the UN World Disarmament Week and involved about 400 people. In 2008 and 2009, there have been protests about, and criticism of, several new nuclear reactor proposals in the United States. There have also been some objections to license renewals for existing nuclear plants. A convoy of 350 farm tractors and 50,000 protesters took part in an anti-nuclear rally in Berlin on 5 September 2009. The marchers demanded that Germany close all nuclear plants by 2020 and close the Gorleben radioactive dump. Gorleben is the focus of the anti-nuclear movement in Germany, which has tried to derail train transports of waste and to destroy or block the approach roads to the site. Two above-ground storage units house 3,500 containers of radioactive sludge and thousands of tonnes of spent fuel rods.
2010
On 21 April 2010, a dozen environmental organizations called on the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission to investigate possible limitations in the AP1000 reactor design. These groups appealed to three federal agencies to suspend the licensing process, arguing that containment in the new design is weaker than in existing reactors. On 24 April 2010, about 120,000 people built a human chain (KETTENreAKTION!) between the nuclear plants at Krümmel and Brunsbüttel. In this way, they were demonstrating against the German government's plans to extend the lifespans of nuclear power reactors. In May 2010, some 25,000 people, including members of peace organizations and 1945 atomic bomb survivors, marched for about two kilometers from downtown New York to the United Nations headquarters, calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons. In September 2010, German government policy shifted back toward nuclear energy, and this generated some new anti-nuclear sentiment in Berlin and beyond. On 18 September 2010, tens of thousands of Germans surrounded Chancellor Angela Merkel's office in an anti-nuclear demonstration that organisers said was the biggest of its kind since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. In October 2010, tens of thousands of people protested in Munich against the nuclear power policy of Angela Merkel's coalition government. The action was the largest anti-nuclear event in Bavaria for more than two decades. In November 2010, there were violent protests against a train carrying reprocessed nuclear waste in Germany. Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Dannenberg to signal their opposition to the cargo. Around 16,000 police were mobilised to deal w