![Demonstrators displaying banners against the construction of the nuclear power plant in Kaiseraugst, September 1984.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/titelbild-2-1-300x225.jpg)
Opposition to Kaiseraugst nuclear power plant
A broad cross-section of society came out in unity against the construction of Kaiseraugst nuclear power plant. The burgeoning anti-nuclear movement benefited from a high degree of media resonance.
The frosty December 1973 sit-in
![Gewaltfreie Aktion Kaiseraugst transfer print.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/sozarch-f-5053-ob-217-300x296.jpg)
![Activists putting up placards at the proposed construction site in December 1973.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/gbe-176889-lm-179496-208x300.jpg)
![Protestors sitting on bales of hay and keeping warm by the fire.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/gbe-176890-lm-179496-205x300.jpg)
Every day dozens of sympathisers come out in support of the protestors, bringing them snacks and drinks.
The eleven-week occupation of the site in 1975
Aernschd Born, “d Ballade vo Kaiseraugscht” YouTube
![The occupation of the planned nuclear site at Kaiseraugst in the canton of Aargau began in the early hours of 1 April 1975.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/roh-3911-lm-1408811-1-300x198.jpg)
![Activists kept coming to the occupied site.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/gbe-166276-lm-14088114-1-300x199.jpg)
![Call to demonstrate in Bern on 26 April 1975.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/gbe-86368-lm-166703-1-209x300.jpg)
“CH-Magazin” from 25 April 1975 on the occupation of the Kaiseraugst site. YouTube / SRF Archiv
The protests during the 1980s that led to the abandonment of the project
![The occupiers left the site as they had found it in April 1975.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/gbe-166264-lm-11832710-1-300x197.jpg)
![Activists cleaning up after themselves in the occupier camp.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/gbe-166269-lm-11832714-1-300x208.jpg)
![Transfer print for the anti-nuclear initiative.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/sozarch-f-5006-ox-009-1-300x296.jpg)
![The anti-nuclear lobby demonstrating against the granting of planning permission for the nuclear power plant in 1981.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/gbe-166271-lm-11832731-1-300x197.jpg)
![Activists taking a stand on the Kaiseraugst site.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/gbe-166272-lm-11832763-1-300x199.jpg)
Actualités Suisses Lausanne
Some of the photographs displayed are from press picture agency Actualités Suisses Lausanne (ASL). This agency, based in French-speaking Switzerland, was founded in 1954 by Roland Schlaefli and Edouard Baumgartner. ASL specialised in sports photos as well as political subjects. Schlaefli was an accredited Federal Palace photographer until the agency’s closure. Prior to that, Schlaefli had worked at another press picture agency, Presse Diffusion Lausanne (PDL), which was acquired by ASL in 1974. ASL folded at the turn of the millennium, after which the Swiss National Museum took over the agency’s photo archives.