Nuclear fallout as risk Denmark and the thermonuclear revolution

• Published in: Histories of Knowledge in Postwar Scandinavia pp. 21 - 38
• Main Author: Sylvest, Casper
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2020
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Nuclear Disarmament; Civil Defence; Global Fallout; Nordic Cooperation; Danish Debate; Nuclear Testing; Dagens Nyheter; Megaton Bombs; Contemporary Society; Thermonuclear Revolution; Danish Scientists; Knowledge Acquisition; Danish Citizens; Nuclear Weapons; UN; FCDA; National Library; Danish Public Debate; Danish Authorities; National Academy; NATO Meet; Radioactive Fallout; MRC
• ISBN: 9780367894559; 9780367503604; 0367894556; 0367503603
• DOI: 10.4324/9781003019275-3

Among the consequences of nuclear fallout in the Cold War West was a new wave of fear concerning everyday existence and the future of human civilisation. In this chapter, the author examines the Danish debate over fallout by asking how knowledge about the effects of nuclear weapons was created, circulated, and contested. In the years following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Danish citizens had access to general knowledge and news reporting about the development of nuclear weapons technology. Alert to the devastation a nuclear war would entail and a fervent believer in a world federation, Professor Poul Brandt Rehberg grew into an "intellectual Cold Warrior", who defended deterrence and represented an orthodox NATO position in Danish public debate. Especially Kampagnen mod Atomvabens emotionally charged campaign against nuclear weapons (testing) and for more information on the subject was discursively modelled on uncertainty and the long-term risks posited by geneticists.