---
title: "Anti-nuclear movement"
chunk: 5/15
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-nuclear_movement"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:22:20.182369+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

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".