The purpose of the research is to highlight the formation and development of the movement against nuclear energy in the USA in the 1970s and 1980s. The research methodology is based on the principle of historicism and problem-chronological and complex approaches. We used the following methods: historical and systemic – in the process of considering the movement against nuclear energy in the USA as an integrated part of the social activity of the American public in the period of the 1970s – 1980s; historical-chronological – to identify features and changes in the dynamics of the movement against atomic energy; problem-genetic – in the study of the impact on the movement of key incidents in atomic energy; comparative – to establish common and different forms, character and activity of anti-nuclear power protest organizations in the USA. The scientific novelty of the article. For the first time in Ukrainian historiography, an attempt was made to investigate the origins of the movement against nuclear energy in the USA, its dynamics and key events as one of the largest social phenomena of the country in the 1970s and 1980s. In the example of the Three Mile Island station district, the development of protest organizations and the strategy of rallying American society in the conditions of a radiation incident is traced; the impact of the Chornobyl disaster on the activation of the movement against nuclear energy in the USA was revealed. The article also shows the impact of anti-nuclear public activism on the social and political sphere of the USA. Conclusions. An organized movement against nuclear energy emerged in the mid-1970s as opposition to the development of the U.S. civilian nuclear program. The Three Mile Island incident in March 1979 undermined social confidence in the industry, fueling anti-nuclear activism. The Chornobyl disaster in Ukraine on April 26, 1986, mobilized and consolidated the movement against nuclear energy in the United States, finally halting the development of the industry for more than 30 years.