Atomic Age

The Atomic Age was a time in the 1950s in which it was believed that all power sources in the future would be atomic in nature. After the atomic bomb rendered all conventional explosives redundant and nuclear power plants did the same for power sources such as coal and oil, there was a general feeling that everything would use a nuclear power source of some sort. This even included cars, leading Ford to display their Nucleon concept car to the public in 1958.

By the mid-1960s the real nature of the Atomic Age had become clear, leading eventually to the massive anti-nuclear demonstrations of the 1970s and '80s.

External links:

Ford Nucleon (http://www.velocityjrnl.com/jrnl/1958/vmd1210ov)