Item SH 870558 Badge - Uranium Creates A Police State

Summary

Alternative Name(s): Button

Across the history of the anti-nuclear movement, most activists were not only concerned with the environmental and health effect of nuclear power, but also with the social consequences of its use. Many were afraid that the nuclear power industry, because of the high risks associated with it, would lead to an increasing restrictions on civil liberties and freedoms. Campaigners believed that this would result in a police-state climate.

In America in 1974, government officials convinced congress to add an amendment to existing nuclear power legislation in order to allow for probing the character and associations of plutonium workers, for fear they might turn out to be nuclear terrorists. In 1975 an official report commissioned by the NRC also predicted the possibility of developments towards a police state, whereby a specialised force would be authorised to investigate individuals with suspicious behaviour in connection to atomic power.

Physical Description

Medium size badge. Black background. Red radioactive symbol c. with a skull in the middle. Red printed text encircling the perimeter of the badge. Pin on the back.