Flexibility on a Firm Foundation—The Central Electricity Generating Board’s Promotion of Nuclear Power in Oldbury-on-Severn

In March 1959, the small parish of Oldbury-on-Severn in Gloucestershire was singled out to become the site of one of the last reactors in the United Kingdom's first "generation" of atomic power plants. The initial reception was ambiguous. Local people feared the loss of land, of traditional fishing rights in the nearby River Severn, and radioactive fallout. In unison, the parish council rejected the project, but accepted that the majority of Thornbury Rural District, to which it belonged, welcomed it as something that was in the national interest, was deemed safe by experts, and was a source of pride. In May, an exhibition on nuclear energy was opened in Thornbury to convince local people of the technology's benefits. It was a first step in a long row of measures taken to argue for the power station and its positive contribution to the area. This paper demonstrates that the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) and with it, the British state, as an early adopter of nuclear power, never ceased to fight for the technology's acceptance, but faced challenges ranging from initial local skepticism to transnational catastrophes such as Chernobyl. In doing so, the CEGB resorted to a variety of measures, from the initial exhibition to large open days, and profited from institutionalized ones, namely public inquiries and a "Local Liaison Committee" functioning as a hinge between the power plant and its neighborhood. The paper thereby uncovers the often mundane practices by which technology acceptance was produced and maintained on the ground.