Anti-nuclear movement in the United Kingdom

In London, in October 1983, more than 300,000 people assembled in Hyde Park as part of the largest protest against nuclear weapons in British history.

In 2005 in Britain, there were many protests and peace camps about the government's proposal to replace the ageing Trident weapons system with a newer model.

[4] There are large variations in peoples' understanding of the issues surrounding nuclear power, including the technology itself, climate change, and energy security.

The companies will not proceed with their Horizon project, which was to develop nuclear reactors at Wylfa in North Wales and at Oldbury-on-Severn in Gloucestershire.

[4] In May 2012, a new government report showed that, in England and Wales, hundreds of sites could be contaminated with radioactive waste from old military bases, factories, and old planes.

It began in September 1981 after a Welsh group called "Women for Life on Earth" arrived at Greenham to protest against the decision of the Government to allow cruise missiles to be based there.

Such events aim to keep the base closed for as long as possible by preventing its staff from arriving for work, and usually involve large numbers of protesters being arrested for non-violent civil disobedience.

[18][19][20] Other peace camps were set up at the same time at Naphill, Daws Hill, Upper Heyford, and Lakenheath though none lasted more than a few years.

[22] 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 march was organised by Pobl Atal Wylfa B, Greenpeace and Cymdeithas yr Iaith, which are supporting a farmer who is in dispute with Horizon.

[25] In February 2012, protesters set up camp in an abandoned farm on the site of the proposed Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.

They are "angry West Somerset Council has given EDF Energy the go-ahead for preparatory work before planning permission has been granted".

[citation needed] In April 2013, thousands of Scottish campaigners, MSPs, and union leaders, rallied against nuclear weapons.

The Scrap Trident Coalition wants to see an end to nuclear weapons, and says saved monies should be used for health, education and welfare initiatives.

[55] It was reported in 2011 that the government's programme to build new nuclear power stations in England would be "delayed by at least three months so that lessons can be learned from the accident at Fukushima in Japan".

[59][60] Contributors included: George Monbiot, an English writer known for his environmental and political activism, once expressed deep antipathy to the nuclear industry.

[64] Subsequently, he has harshly condemned the anti-nuclear movement, writing that it "has misled the world about the impacts of radiation on human health ... made [claims] ungrounded in science, unsupportable when challenged and wildly wrong".

On 12 December 1982, 30,000 women held hands around the 6 miles (9.7 km) perimeter of the RAF Greenham Common base, in protest against the decision to site American cruise missiles there.
Demonstrators outside the wire fences at Molesworth, early 1980s
8 April 1985, CND placards against the RAF Molesworth fence
Police dismantling a blockade of protestors at the south gate of the Faslane naval base.
Anti-nuclear march from London to Geneva, 2008
The now-familiar peace symbol was originally the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament logo.
In March 2006, a protest took place in Derby where campaigners handed a letter to Margaret Beckett , head of DEFRA , outside Derby City Council about the dangers of nuclear power stations.