From Energy Dreams to Nuclear Nightmares: Lessons from the Anti-nuclear Power Movement in the 1970s

This book challenges the existing histories and explanations for the growth of the anti-nuclear power movement in the United Kingdom from 1955 to 1979. Arguing that opposition to nuclear power emerged in the 1970s because of the concerns of a minority of people about the dangers of atomic energy, based on the ecological messages contained in bestselling science fiction novels from the late 1940s to mid 1960s. Showing how a minority of the 1960s underground press blended old conservation ideas with counterculture styles to create new radical groups such as Friends of the Earth, this analysis also seeks to answer questions such as Why an anti-nuclear power movement instead of an anti-coal or anti-asbestos movement? What was it about nuclear power that generated such opposition—its environmental impact, its cost, its prospects or its symbolism? and Could wind power in the 21st century face the same forces that opposed nuclear power 30 years ago?