Avril Moncaster: Anti-Nuclear Campaigner

Avril Moncaster orally documents the history of ‘Half-Life’, a community group of local residents and scientists from Lancaster University established in the 1970s to campaign against the production of nuclear energy at Heysham, where reactors Heysham 1 and 2 were being constructed. She describes ‘Half-life’ as a people’s movement, holding demonstrations both at Heysham and in London, organising talks and engaging with the local and national press.

Avril describes how ‘Half-Life’ raised public awareness of nuclear issues, pressuring the nuclear industry to be less secretive and forcing a public enquiry into the 1957 nuclear disaster at Windscale (now Sellafield) in Cumbria.