page_title: Anti-nuclear movement in France
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Anti-nuclear movement in France / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Demonstration against nuclear tests in Lyon, France. Français&#160;: Manifestation contre les essais nucléaires, Lyon, France.
context_page_description: In the 1970s, an anti-nuclear movement in France, consisting of citizens' groups and political action committees, emerged. Between 1975 and 1977, some 175,000 people protested against nuclear power in ten demonstrations.
  In 1972, the anti-nuclear weapons movement maintained a presence in the Pacific, largely in response to French nuclear testing there. Activists, including David McTaggart from Greenpeace, defied the French government by sailing small vessels into the test zone and interrupting the testing program. In Australia, scientists issued statements demanding an end to the tests; unions refused to load French ships, service French planes, or carry French mail; and consumers boycotted French products. In 1985 the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was bombed and sunk by the French DGSE in Auckland, New Zealand, as it prepared for another protest of nuclear testing in French military zones. One crew member, Fernando Pereira of Portugal, photographer, drowned on the sinking ship.
  In January 2004, up to 15,000 anti-nuclear protesters marched in Paris against a new generation of nuclear reactors, the European Pressurised Reactor.
context_section_description: In France, opposition to nuclear weapons has been somewhat muted since they are perceived as a national symbol and as securing French independence. The strongest anti-nuclear opposition has emerged over nuclear power "as a reaction to the centralising traditions of the French state and the technocratic trends of modern society".
  France began a nuclear power program in the 1950s and announced a shift to the Westinghouse light water reactor in 1969.  Following the 1973 oil crisis, the government announced a dramatic increase in planned nuclear capacity.  These major decisions were put forward as a fait accompli, with no opportunity for meaningful parliamentary debate.   An intense extra-parliamentary opposition, of citizens' groups and political action committees, emerged.  In the 1970s, there were many large and dramatic anti-nuclear protests and demonstrations in France.
  In 1971, 15,000 people demonstrated against French plans to locate the first light -water reactor power plant in Bugey. This was the first of
  a series of mass protests organized at nearly every planned nuclear site
  until the massive demonstration at the Superphénix breeder reactor in
  Creys-Malvillein in 1977 culminated in violence. Between 1975 and 1977, some 175,000 people protested against nuclear power in ten demonstrations.
  In 1972, the anti-nuclear weapons movement maintained a presence in the Pacific, largely in response to French nuclear testing there. Activists, including David McTaggart from Greenpeace, defied the French government by sailing small vessels into the test zone and interrupting the testing program. In Australia, thousands joined protest marches in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney. Scientists issued statements demanding an end to the tests; unions refused to load French ships, service French planes, or carry French mail; and consumers boycotted French products. In Fiji, activists formed an Against Testing on Mururoa organization.
  On 18 January 1982, Swiss activist Chaïm Nissim fired five rockets, obtained from the Red Army Faction through Carlos the Jackal, on the Superphénix nuclear plant, then under construction. Rockets were launched at the incomplete containment building and caused damage, missing the reactor's empty core.
  In 1985 the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior was bombed and sunk by the French DGSE in Auckland, New Zealand, as it prepared for another protest of nuclear testing in French military zones. One crew member, Fernando Pereira of Portugal, photographer, drowned on the sinking ship while attempting to recover his photographic equipment. Two members of DGSE were captured and sentenced, but eventually repatriated to France in a controversial affair.
  Following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, radiation levels were much higher than originally thought, and some farmers in the eastern part of France had to plow under tainted lettuce and cabbage crops. French authorities at the time of the Chernobyl disaster were "criticised for a lack of transparency, with many interpreting officials' declarations as saying that radioactive pollution had not crossed the border from Germany into France".
caption: Demonstration against nuclear tests in Lyon, France, in the 1980s.
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