h i s t o r y   o f   m a j o r   
a c c o m p l i s h m e n t s   


 

1970s

• UCS calls for the shutdown of the Three Mile Island facility and 15 other nuclear power plants because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had severely understated the probability of an accident at one of these plants. Two months later, following the near-meltdown of Three Mile Island Unit II, UCS provides crucial independent information about the accident and the risks to neighboring communities. [More about Nuclear Safety]
   
• 12,000 scientists sign the UCS-sponsored "Scientists' Declaration on the Nuclear Arms Race," which urges a halt to the buildup of nuclear weapons by ending underground testing and enacting a moratorium on testing and deployment of new nuclear weapons. [More about Global Security]
   
• In response to the government's Reactor Safety Study, UCS publishes The Risks of Nuclear Power Reactors, which shows that American nuclear plants are unsafe. This report plays a key role in the government's ultimate repudiation of its own study. [More about Nuclear Safety]

1960s

• The first UCS report, ABM ABC, criticizes President Nixon's proposed "Safeguard" antiballistic missile (ABM) system. UCS opposition to ABM deployment was part of a broad national movement that helped build public support for the ABM treaty, signed by the United States and Soviet Union in 1972. [More about Global Security]
   
• A faculty statement issued at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on March 4, 1969, results in the founding of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Among other points, the statement called for greater emphasis on applying scientific research to pressing environmental and social problems rather than military programs.
   

More accomplishments: 2000-present, 1990s, 1980s...

 
Urge Congress to Support New Global Warming Bills