Having predicted the 1973 oil crisis , Murrell became increasingly concerned by the hazards posed by nuclear energy and weapons . She began to research this highly technical field . In 1978 , she wrote a paper entitled " What Price Nuclear Power ? " in which she challenged the economics of the civil nuclear industry . After the 1979 US accident at Three Mile Island , she turned her attention to safety aspects , and homed in on the problem of radioactive waste , the disposal of which she concluded was the industry 's Achilles ' heel . In 1982 , the Department of the Environment published a white paper ( Cmnd 8607 ) on the British Government 's policy on radioactive waste management . Murrell , now in her late 70s , wrote a critique of it , which she developed into her submission " An Ordinary Citizen 's View of Radioactive Waste Management " to the first formal planning inquiry into a nuclear power plant in Britain , the Sizewell B Pressurised Water Reactor in Suffolk
accident at Three Mile Island
Three Mile Island accident
Hilda Murrell