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The early environmental movement was very opposed to nuclear energy. Over a decade before the Three Mile Island Incident, there were major concerns over the risks of the industry due to the production of nuclear waste. Environmentalists also engaged in a legal battle that forced the Atomic Energy Commission to release a report it created on a worst case scenario involving the larger 1,000 MW reactors being ordered (it predicted up to tens of thousands of deaths and hundreds of billions of dollars in property damages). This led to a strange alliance of sorts between environmentalist and community groups, especially as reactors were found to suffer from construction defects and poor siting (including several built near or even on top of fault lines). There was probably some overlap with anti-war and anti-nuclear weapons groups as well.

Recently some environmentalists have changed their opinion of nuclear power, including one of the founders of Greenpeace. While they usually are more favorable towards renewable energy, they pragmatically support nuclear power as being more environmentally friendly than coal. Would it have been possible for the early environmental movement to have reached a similar conclusion, and become a major force in support of nuclear energy? Could the environmentalist have successfully pushed for greater investment in nuclear energy, especially following the energy crises?
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