Editing Nuclear power (section)

===Expansion and first opposition===
The total global installed nuclear capacity initially rose relatively quickly, rising from less than 1 [[gigawatt]] (GW) in 1960 to 100{{nbsp}}GW in the late 1970s.<ref name="iaeapdf">{{cite web |url=http://www.iaea.org/About/Policy/GC/GC48/Documents/gc48inf-4_ftn3.pdf |title=50 Years of Nuclear Energy |access-date=2006-11-09 |publisher=International Atomic Energy Agency |archive-date=2010-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100107093607/http://www.iaea.org/About/Policy/GC/GC48/Documents/gc48inf-4_ftn3.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> During the 1970s and 1980s rising economic costs (related to extended construction times largely due to regulatory changes and pressure-group litigation)<ref name="Bernard L. Cohen 1990">{{cite book |author=Bernard L. Cohen |date=1990 |title=The Nuclear Energy Option: An Alternative for the 90s |url=https://archive.org/details/nuclearenergyopt0000cohe |location=New York |publisher=Plenum Press |isbn=978-0-306-43567-6 |url-access=registration }}</ref> and falling fossil fuel prices made nuclear power plants then under construction less attractive. In the 1980s in the U.S. and 1990s in Europe, the flat electric grid growth and [[electricity liberalization]] also made the addition of large new [[baseload]] energy generators economically unattractive.

The [[1973 oil crisis]] had a significant effect on countries, such as [[France]] and [[Japan]], which had relied more heavily on oil for electric generation to invest in nuclear power.<ref>{{cite web |author=Beder |first=Sharon |date=2006 |title=The Japanese Situation, English version of conclusion of Sharon Beder, "Power Play: The Fight to Control the World's Electricity" |url=http://www.herinst.org/sbeder/privatisation/japan.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110317160509/http://www.herinst.org/sbeder/privatisation/japan.html |archive-date=2011-03-17 |access-date=2009-05-15 |publisher=Soshisha, Japan}}</ref> France would construct 25 nuclear power plants over the next 15 years,<ref name="palfreman">{{Cite news| last = Palfreman| first = Jon| title = Why the French Like Nuclear Energy| work = [[Frontline (U.S. TV series)|Frontline]]| publisher = [[Public Broadcasting Service]]| access-date = 25 August 2007| year = 1997| url = https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/reaction/readings/french.html| archive-date = 25 August 2007| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070825003225/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/reaction/readings/french.html| url-status = live}}</ref><ref name="de preneuf">{{cite web |last=de Preneuf |first=Rene |title=Nuclear Power in France&nbsp;– Why does it Work? |url=http://www.npcil.nic.in/nupower_vol13_2/npfr_.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070813233335/http://www.npcil.nic.in/nupower_vol13_2/npfr_.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=13 August 2007 |access-date=25 August 2007}}</ref> and as of 2019, 71% of French electricity was generated by nuclear power, the highest percentage by any nation in the world.<ref name=":0" />

Some local opposition to nuclear power emerged in the United States in the early 1960s.<ref name="well">{{cite journal |author=Garb |first=Paula |year=1999 |title=Review of Critical Masses: Opposition to Nuclear Power in California, 1958–1978 |url=http://jpe.library.arizona.edu/volume_6/wellockvol6.htm |url-status=dead |journal=Journal of Political Ecology |volume=6 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180601112114/http://jpe.library.arizona.edu/volume_6/wellockvol6.htm |archive-date=2018-06-01 |access-date=2011-03-14}}</ref> In the late 1960s, some members of the scientific community began to express pointed concerns.<ref name=wolfgang /> These [[anti-nuclear]] concerns related to [[nuclear accidents]], [[nuclear proliferation]], [[nuclear terrorism]] and [[High-level radioactive waste management|radioactive waste disposal]].<ref name="bm">{{cite journal |author=Martin |first=Brian |author-link=Brian Martin (social scientist) |date=2007 |title=Opposing nuclear power: past and present |url=http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/07sa.html |url-status=live |journal=Social Alternatives |volume=26 |pages=43–47 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190510124855/https://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/07sa.html |archive-date=2019-05-10 |access-date=2011-03-14 |number=2}}</ref> In the early 1970s, there were large protests about a proposed nuclear power plant in [[Wyhl]], Germany. The project was cancelled in 1975. The anti-nuclear success at Wyhl inspired opposition to nuclear power in other parts of Europe and North America.<ref name="pub">{{cite book |last1=Mills |first1=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SeMNAAAAQAAJ&q=%22public+acceptance+of+new+technologies%22 |title=Public acceptance of new technologies: an international review |last2=Williams |first2=Roger |date=1986 |publisher=Croom Helm |isbn=978-0-7099-4319-8 |location=London |pages=375–376}}</ref><ref name=got>Robert Gottlieb (2005). [https://books.google.com/books?id=lR0n6oqMNPkC&dq=transofrmation+of+the+american+environmental+gottlieb+revised&pg=PP1 Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement], Revised Edition, Island Press, p. 237.</ref>

By the mid-1970s [[anti-nuclear]] activism gained a wider appeal and influence, and nuclear power began to become an issue of major public protest.<ref name="jimfalk">{{cite book |last=Falk |first=Jim |url=https://archive.org/details/globalfissionbat00falk |title=Global Fission: The Battle Over Nuclear Power |date=1982 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-554315-5 |location=Melbourne, Australia |pages=[https://archive.org/details/globalfissionbat00falk/page/95 95–96] |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="eleven">Walker, J. Samuel (2004). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=tf0AfoynG-EC&q=Three+Mile+Island:+A+Nuclear+Crisis+in+Historical+Perspective Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230323071157/https://books.google.com/books?id=tf0AfoynG-EC&q=Three+Mile+Island:+A+Nuclear+Crisis+in+Historical+Perspective|date=2023-03-23}}'' (Berkeley, California: University of California Press), pp. 10–11.</ref> In some countries, the [[Nuclear power debate|nuclear power conflict]] "reached an intensity unprecedented in the history of technology controversies".<ref name="marcuse.org">{{cite journal |author=Herbert P. Kitschelt |date=1986 |title=Political Opportunity and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies |url=http://www.marcuse.org/harold/hmimages/seabrook/861KitscheltAntiNuclear4Democracies.pdf |journal=British Journal of Political Science |volume=16 |issue=1 |page=57 |doi=10.1017/s000712340000380x |s2cid=154479502 |access-date=2010-02-28 |archive-date=2010-08-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100821195323/http://www.marcuse.org/harold/hmimages/seabrook/861KitscheltAntiNuclear4Democracies.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="kits">{{cite journal |author=Kitschelt |first=Herbert P. |date=1986 |title=Political Opportunity and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies |url=http://www.marcuse.org/harold/hmimages/seabrook/861KitscheltAntiNuclear4Democracies.pdf |url-status=live |journal=British Journal of Political Science |volume=16 |issue=1 |page=71 |doi=10.1017/s000712340000380x |s2cid=154479502 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100821195323/http://www.marcuse.org/harold/hmimages/seabrook/861KitscheltAntiNuclear4Democracies.pdf |archive-date=2010-08-21 |access-date=2010-02-28}}</ref> The increased public hostility to nuclear power led to a longer license procurement process, more regulations and increased requirements for safety equipment, which made new construction much more expensive.<ref name="phyast.pitt.edu">{{cite web |title=Costs of Nuclear Power Plants – What Went Wrong? |url=http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~blc/book/chapter9.html |website=www.phyast.pitt.edu |access-date=2007-12-04 |archive-date=2010-04-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100413204335/http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~blc/book/chapter9.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Ginn |first1=Vance |last2=Raia |first2=Elliott |date=August 18, 2017 |title=nuclear energy may soon be free from its tangled regulatory web |url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nuclear-energy-may-soon-be-free-from-its-tangled-regulatory-web |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190106204903/https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nuclear-energy-may-soon-be-free-from-its-tangled-regulatory-web |archive-date=January 6, 2019 |access-date=January 6, 2019 |work=Washington Examiner}}</ref> In the United States, over [[List of cancelled nuclear reactors in the United States|120 Light Water Reactor proposals were ultimately cancelled]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33442.pdf | title=Nuclear Power: Outlook for New U.S. Reactors | page=3 | access-date=2015-10-18 | archive-date=2015-09-24 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924134344/http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33442.pdf | url-status=live }}</ref> and the construction of new reactors ground to a halt.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite journal |date=1985-02-11 |title=Nuclear Follies |journal=Forbes Magazine|last=Cook|first=James}}</ref> The 1979 [[Three Mile Island accident|accident at Three Mile Island]] with no fatalities, played a major part in the reduction in the number of new plant constructions in many countries.<ref name="wolfgang">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZXwfAQAAIAAJ |title=Anti-nuclear Movements: A World Survey of Opposition to Nuclear Energy |publisher=Longman Current Affairs |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-8103-9000-3 |editor1-last=Rüdig |editor1-first=Wolfgang |location=Detroit, Michigan |page=1 |language=en-us}}</ref>