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So far, the atom's opponents have succeeded in delaying or halting nuclear programs in much of Europe. The nine member-nations of the European Community are expected to draw only 7% of their energy from nuclear power in 1985, well below the goal of 13% set three years ago. The governments of Denmark and Norway have been pressured into putting off plans to build their first nuclear reactors. In The Netherlands, where a recent poll showed that 53% of the Dutch have doubts about nuclear energy, construction of three new reactors has been postponed. In Switzerland, a round-the-clock sit-in at a nuclear construction site near Basel has caused long delays. Belgium, Luxembourg and Austria have been obliged to postpone nuclear development. The battle is fiercest in West Germany and France. West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's ambitious program, involving 17 new reactors, has been halted by outraged citizens' groups, while France's program has been delayed for a year—thanks largely to protests backed by left-wing labor unions.
Busy Environmentalists. For a people whose respect for authority is legendary, the West Germans are now, remarkably, Europe's busiest environmentalists. Their organizations are called B.I.s—for Burgerinitiativen, or citizens' action groups. About 15 million Germans have joined the action groups to oppose not only the construction of nuclear-power plants, but the destruction of forests, vacation lands, historic towns and churches as well. Last fall 6,000 West Berliners staged a dramatic march to save their famed Berliner Luft, which they claim is the cleanest urban air in Europe. They held a nightlong meeting in Spandau forest to protest the felling of trees for a planned coal-fired power plant.
Other groups have successfully stopped autobahn construction that would have cut off the idyllic town of Eltville from the Rhine, and have put pressure on local officials to spare landmarks in Lübeck, Hamburg, Munich, Heidelberg and other ancient cities. The B.I.s' slogan—"Better to be active today than radioactive tomorrow"—has also proved effective in rallying hundreds of thousands of people to the antinuclear-energy cause. Says Scientist Peter Menke-Gliickert: "Environment has become the Viet Nam of the middle class."
In France, where the expression of citizens' grievances is practically a way of life, there are now hundreds of new pressure groups devoted to nuclear energy and consumer issues. The Paris phone book carries five pages of citizens' group listings. One such lobby is the Association of Telephone Users, which is dedicated to curing the problem best illustrated by a well-known axiom: "Half the people in France are waiting to get telephones while the other half are waiting for a dial tone." Campaigners for more green spaces in the cities often join opponents of nuclear power in occupying reactor construction sites. In Lyon, ecologists broke into a nuclear-research office and stole the company's contingency plans for a major nuclear accident. Publication of the document, which outlined the medical aid and evacuation plans that would be needed in case of radioactive contamination, sent voters scurrying to the polls last month to vote for the ecologists.