Background

Canada’s nuclear industry was born in secrecy and has been shrouded in mystery since its inception. Events in the mid-1970s made it clear that Canadian citizens and their elected representatives were ill-equipped to grapple with nuclear issues due to a lack of objective information.

India exploded its first atomic bomb in 1974 using plutonium produced in a Canadian research reactor. An elementary school in Port Hope Ontario had to be evacuated in 1975 due to radioactive contamination. Uranium miners in Elliot Lake went on strike in 1974 over an epidemic of radiation-caused lung cancer. Plans were being laid to build hundreds of reactors across Canada, starting with Quebec. Ordinary Canadians, including politicians, were ill-equipped to fully understand the implications of such developments.

The Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR) was formed by a group of thirty academics and social activists in Montreal in 1975 to act as a clearinghouse of information related to nuclear energy and nuclear weapons, including uranium mining, reactor hazards, nuclear weapons proliferation, and the long-lived radioactive legacy of the nuclear age.