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List of anti-nuclear protests in the United States

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This is a list of notable anti-nuclear protests in the United States. Many anti-nuclear campaigns captured national public attention in the 1970s and 1980s, including those at Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant, Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and those following the Three Mile Island accident. Protests preceded the shutdown of the Shoreham, Yankee Rowe, Millstone I, Rancho Seco, Maine Yankee, and about a dozen other nuclear power plants.[1] Protests in recent years have focused mainly on Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Naval Base Kitsap, Nevada Test Site and several proposed nuclear reactors.

Contents

[edit] 1 Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant

Seabrook power plant was proposed as a twin-reactor plant in 1972, at an estimated cost of $973 million. When it finally won a commercial license in March 1990, it was a single reactor which cost $6.5 billion.[2] Over a period of thirteen years, more than 4,000 citizens committed nonviolent civil disobedience at Seabrook:[3]

  • August 1, 1976: 200 residents rallied at the future Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant site in New Hampshire, and 18 were arrested for criminal trespass.[3]
  • August 22, 1976: 188 activists from New England were arrested at the Seabrook site.[3][4]
  • May 2, 1977: 1,414 protesters were arrested at Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant.[5]
  • May 13, 1977: about 550 demonstrators were arrested.[4]
  • June 1978: some 12,000 people attended a protest at Seabrook.[5]
  • May 25-27 1980: Police use tear gas, riot sticks and dogs to drive 2,000 demonstrators away from the Seabrook site.[6]
  • May 24, 1986: 74 anti-nuclear demonstrators were arrested in protests.[7][8]
  • October 17, 1988: 84 people were arrested at the Seabrook plant.[9]
  • June 5, 1989: hundreds of demonstrators protested against the plant's first low-power testing, and the police arrested 627 people for trespassing; two state legislators, one from Massachusetts and one from New Hampshire, protested.[10][3]

[edit] 2 Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant

  • August 6, 1977: The Abalone Alliance held the first blockade at Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California, and 47 people were arrested.[11]
  • August 1978: almost 500 people were arrested for protesting at Diablo Canyon.[11]
  • April 8, 1979: 30,000 people marched in San Francisco to support shutting down the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.[12]
  • June 30, 1979: about 40,000 people attended a protest rally at Diablo Canyon.[13]
  • September 1981: more than 900 protesters were arrested at Diablo Canyon.[14][11]
  • May 1984: about 130 demonstrators showed up for start-up day at Diablo Canyon, and five were arrested.[15]

[edit] 3 Three Mile Island

The American public were concerned about the release of radioactive gas from the Three Mile Island accident and many mass demonstrations took place across the country in the following months. The largest one was held in New York in September 1979 and involved two hundred thousand people.[16] In the previous May, an estimated 65,000 people, including the Governor of California, attended a march and rally against nuclear power in Washington, D.C.[12][16]

[edit] 4 Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant

  • June 2, 1979: about 500 people were arrested for protesting about construction of the Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant in Oklahoma.[5][17]
  • February 1982: following years of legal action and protests, it was announced that the plant would not be built.[18][19]

[edit] 5 Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant

  • June 3, 1979: some 15,000 people attended a rally organized by the Shad Alliance and about 600 were arrested at Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant in New York.[20][21]
  • 1989: the completed Shoreham plant was closed without generating any commercial electrical power.[20]

[edit] 6 Rocky Flats Plant

  • April 28, 1979: 15,000 people demonstrated against the Rocky Flats Nuclear Processing Plant in Colorado, making the link between nuclear power and nuclear weaponry.[22][23]
  • October 15, 1983: Large demonstration at Rocky Flats.[24][25]
  • August, 1989: An estimated 3,500 people turned out for a demonstration at Rocky Flats.[25]

[edit] 7 Rancho Seco Nuclear Power Plant

In 1979, Abalone Alliance members held a 38-day sit-in in the Californian Governor Jerry Brown's office to protest continued operation of Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station, which was a duplicate of the Three Mile Island facility.[26] In 1989, Sacremento voters voted to shut down the Rancho Seco power plant.[27]

[edit] 8 Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Plant

Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Plant was shut down in 1992, following years of protests by environmentalists.[28]

[edit] 9 Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant

  • September 23, 1979: some 167 protesters were arrested at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant.[5]
  • January 2006: 100 anti-nuclear supporters demonstrated at the front door of Entergy Nuclear, and eleven people were arrested for trespassing.[29]
  • October 16, 2006: 26 people were arrested outside the Brattleboro offices of owner Entergy Nuclear; the demonstration drew about 200 people.[30]

[edit] 10 San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station

  • June 22, 1980: about 15,000 people attended a protest near San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California.[5]

[edit] 11 Naval Base Kitsap

There have been anti-nuclear protests at Naval Base Kitsap for many years.[31] Recent protests include:

  • January 19, 2008: Seventeen people protesting about nuclear weapons at Naval Base Kitsap at Bangor in honor of Martin Luther King. Jr. were detained or arrested. All were released shortly afterward.[32]
  • May 30, 2008: Twelve people were arrested at an anti-nuclear weapon demonstration at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor — five of them for walking on a sidewalk closed to pedestrian traffic.[33]

[edit] 12 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • There is an annual protest against U.S. nuclear weapons research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. In the 2007 protest, 64 people were arrested.[34]

[edit] 13 Nevada Test Site

  • There have been a series of protests at the Nevada Test Site. In the April 2007 Nevada Desert Experience protest, 39 people were cited by police.[35]

[edit] 14 Other

  • May 1, 2005: Anti-nuclear/anti-war march past the UN in New York, 60 years after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[36]
  • 2008: Protests about several proposed nuclear reactors.[37][38]

[edit] 15 See also

[edit] 16 References

  1. ↑ Nuke Fight Nears Decisive Moment
  2. ↑ 30 years later, another nuclear struggle looms
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Clamshell Alliance: Thirteen Years of Anti-Nuclear Activism at Seabrook, New Hampshire, U.S.A.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Seabrook, NH Nuclear Plant Occupation Page
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Williams, Eesha. Wikipedia distorts nuclear history Rutland Herald, May 1, 2008.
  6. ↑ Hartford Courant
  7. ↑ Anti-Nuclear Protesters Freed in New Hampshire
  8. ↑ New Hampshire / Anti-Nuclear Demonstration
  9. ↑ 84 Arrested in Protest At the Seabrook Plant
  10. ↑ Gold, Allan R. Hundreds Arrested Over Seabrook Test New York Times, June 5, 1989.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Social Protest and Policy Change p. 44.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Amplifying Public Opinion: The Policy Impact of the U.S. Environmental Movement p. 7.
  13. ↑ Gottlieb, Robert (2005). Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement, Revised Edition, Island Press, USA, p. 240.
  14. ↑ Arrests Exceed 900 In Coast Nuclear Protest New York Times, September 18, 1981.
  15. ↑ Testing and Protesting Time, May 14, 1984.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Social Protest and Policy Change p. 45.
  17. ↑ Anti-Nuclear Demonstrations
  18. ↑ Energy officials say nuclear power comeback not likely to happen
  19. ↑ Carrie Dickerson Foundation
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Fagin, Dan (2007-05-29). "Lights Out at Shoreham", Newsday. Retrieved on 2007-08-30. 
  21. ↑ Shoreham Action Is One of Largest Held Worldwide; 15,000 Protest L.I. Atom Plant; 600 Seized 600 Arrested on L.I. as 15,000 Protest at Nuclear Plant Nuclear Supporter on Hand Governor Stresses Safety Thousands Protest Worldwide New York Times, June 4, 1979.
  22. ↑ Nonviolent Social Movements p. 295.
  23. ↑ Headline: Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant / Protest
  24. ↑ Headline: Colorado / Anti-Nuclear Demonstration
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Activists fail to encircle Rocky Flats/ Too few join hands in symbolic protest
  26. ↑ Hippy Dictionary p.559.
  27. ↑ Shutting Down Rancho Seco
  28. ↑ Nuclear Shutdown Funds Are Questioned
  29. ↑ Eleven arrested in latest protest over Vermont Yankee
  30. ↑ Vermont Yankee nuke plant's critics still at it, 34 years later
  31. ↑ For decades, faith has sustained anti-nuclear movement
  32. ↑ Bangor Protest Peaceful; 17 Anti-Nuclear Demonstrators Detained and Released
  33. ↑ Twelve Arrests, But No Violence at Bangor Anti-Nuclear Protest
  34. ↑ Police arrest 64 at California anti-nuclear protest Reuters, April 6, 2007.
  35. ↑ Anti-nuclear rally held at test site: Martin Sheen among activists cited by police
  36. ↑ Pictures: New York MayDay anti-nuke/war march
  37. ↑ Protest against nuclear reactor Chicago Tribune, October 16, 2008.
  38. ↑ Southeast Climate Convergence occupies nuclear facility Indymedia UK, August 8, 2008.
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