In time these and like-minded people would form the foundation of an anti nuclear movement in the United States and elsewhere.
These activists have had a chilling effect on the development of civilian nuclear power generation. This is in large part due to the nuclear arms race, during the arms race large quantities of both high and low level nuclear waste were generated. The production of highly radioactive waste has been the Achilles heel of nuclear production since its earliest days. (Hertsgaard, 1999 ) The problem has been the storage and disposal of this waste. In one instance during the cold war officials at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation elected to pour waste directly into a nearby water way, the Columbia River became the most polluted river in the United States. (Hertsgaard, 1999) Opponents of nuclear power also cite the problems of long term storage of the waste. High level nuclear waste will remain dangerously radioactive for as long as 25000 years, and that no suitable long term storage sites are available. These activists also point to the potential dangers associated with nuclear power plants, and offer up examples, such as, Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986 as the unacceptable consequences of nuclear power. Still others will argue that the high cost of building a reactor plus the cost of decommissioning them and that no acceptable method for dealing with the waste makes nuclear power plants unfeasible. For these reasons, "most people have come to see this technology as far too dangerous to contemplate making it a foundation of our civilization."(Garwin, 2002).
In the after math of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center's in New York city, and on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001, the opponents of nuclear power, are quick to point to the dangers of a terrorist acquiring this waste and using it to build a device that will spread radioactive waste over a large area.
