Nuclear energy in the public sphere: Anti-nuclear movements vs. industrial lobbies in Spain (1962-1979)
Metadata
Show full item recordEditorial
Springer Netherlands
Materia
Nuclear industry Anti-nuclear movement Spanish Atomic Forum Franco regime Spain
Date
2015-03Referencia bibliográfica
Sánchez-Vázquez, L.; Menéndez-Navarro, A. Nuclear energy in the public sphere: anti-nuclear movements vs. industrial lobbies in Spain (1962-1979). Minerva, 53(1): 69-88 (2015). [http://hdl.handle.net/10481/42168]
Abstract
This article examines the role of the Spanish Atomic Forum as the
representative of the nuclear sector in the public arena during the golden years of the
nuclear power industry from the 1960s to 1970s. It focuses on the public image
concerns of the Spanish nuclear lobby and the subsequent information campaigns
launched during the late 1970s to counteract demonstrations by the growing and
heterogeneous anti-nuclear movement. The role of advocacy of nuclear energy by
the Atomic Forum was similar to that in other countries, but the situation in Spain
had some distinguishing features. Anti-nuclear protest in Spain peaked in 1978
paralleling the debates of a new National Energy Plan in Congress, whose first draft
had envisaged a massive nuclearization of the country. We show how the approval
of the Plan in July 1979, with a significant reduction in the nuclear energy component,
was influenced by the anti-nuclear protest movements in Spain. Despite the
efforts of the Spanish Atomic Forum to counter its message, the anti-nuclear
movement was strengthened by reactions to the Three Mile Island accident in March
1979.