Originally Published: http://dkeenan.com/NvT/16/16.9.txt

Jack and Felice Cohen-Joppa
the Nuclear Resister, January 19, 1990.

Record Number of Arrests in 1989 for Anti-Nuclear Protest

The latest statistics,  compiled annually by the Nuclear Resister, reveal that
the 5,500 arrests for anti-nuclear protests in the United States and Canada in
1989 exceed the number reported for any previous year.

"Reports of the death of the anti-nuclear movement were greatly exaggerated in
the second half of the 1980's," notes Felice Cohen-Joppa, co-editor of the
Nuclear Resister newsletter.  "The numbers testify to the vitality of a
nonviolent movement that made the 1980's a decade of unprecedented
anti-nuclear civil resistance, resulting in more than 37,000 arrests in North
America."

The annual statistics show that 5,010 such arrests were made in the United
States, and nearly 500 in Canada, during almost 150 protests at more than
seventy nuclear power and weapons plants, test sites, along transportation
routes and at military bases, government offices and proposed nuclear waste
dumps.

As a result of these anti-nuclear arrests, in 1989 alone more than ninety
people served or are serving from two weeks to seventeen years in prison,
while hundreds more served lesser sentences.

The Nuclear Resister, published since 1980, is a comprehensive chronicle of
anti-nuclear civil disobedience and peace prisoner support.  It is recognized
within the peace and justice movement as THE source for information, referals
and networking about nonviolent direct action for disarmament and safe energy.

In June, federal officials of the Bureau of Land Management evicted the Test
Site Peace Camp, arresting three.  Resolute peace campers have nonetheless
sustained the three-year old continuous vigil by re-locating their camp on the
public rally site adjacent to the main gate.  This proximity enabled peace
campers in July to hastily blockade the entrance road, and for the first time
actually stop a truck convoy likely bringing nuclear weapons to the test site.

Also in June, federal and state agents arrested four Arizona residents in an
alleged conspiracy to topple electrical transmission lines leading from the
Palo Verde (Arizona) and Diablo Canyon (California) nuclear power plants, and
the Rocky Flats (Colorado) nuclear weapons plant.  The four are all active in
the radical environmental movement, Earth First!  The arrests exposed a major
undercover operation against Earth First! involving infiltrators and wiretaps
in at least seven western states.  Three of the four were jailed for two
months before bond was set. In December, a fifth Arizonan was also indicted on
related charges.  Ironically, Earth First! has never focused their attention
on nuclear issues.

In an apparent effort to discredit both the anti-nuclear and radical
environmental movements, prosecutors branded the original four as
"terrorists."  FBI anti-terrorist agent David Small justified that claim with
the sweeping assertion that terrorism "includes any individual committing
criminal acts under federal, state or local laws in furtherance with (sic)
their political or social goals."  No firm trial date has been set, as defense
attorneys review hundreds of hours of wiretap transcripts and recorded
conversations.

While the government has escalated its response to direct action movements,
nonviolent activists are also exploring different ways to advance their
resistance.  While each year scores of resisters refuse to pay fines or
cooperate with terms of probation or parole, in 1989 activists charged in
Michigan, Georgia, Ohio, Missouri and Pennsylvania actions refused even to
answer summons or appear voluntarily in court.  This refusal upheld the claim
of many who do go willingly to court that nonviolent resistance to U.S.
nuclear policies is no crime.  The recalcitrant activists carried on instead
with their peace and justice vocations.  In the case of two people arrested at
missile silos during the 1988 Missouri Peace Planting actions, federal
authorities in 1989 resorted to intimidating the activists' friends and
relatives until the resisters surrendered.

The U.S. Supreme Court was presented in 1989 with the opportunity for the
first time to hear a major nuclear resistance case.  The appeal of the
Plowshares Eight, Catholic peace activists who in 1980 first employed hand
tools to damage nuclear weapons parts, claimed that they were denied a fair
trial in Pennyslvania state court because their defense of justification and
the supporting testimony of various experts had not been allowed.  On October
2, the US Supreme Court declined without comment to hear the case.  In an
earlier appeal, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had invalidated their original
sentences of 1.5 to 10 years.  The Eight, Rev. Daniel Berrigan, Philip
Berrigan, Dean Hammer, Fr. Carl Kabat, Elmer Maas, Sr. Anne Montgomery, Molly
Rush and John Schuchardt - now await resentencing in early 1990.

Civil resistance has also played a major role in the Canadian movement in
1989. A major nonviolent resistance campaign is being led by the Innu, native
people of Northern Quebec and Labrador.  The Canadian government is giving
favorable consideration to a NATO proposal for expanded low-level training
flights of nuclear and conventional NATO warplanes over traditional Innu
hunting ranges, from an airbase at Goose Bay, Labrador.  Innu families have
repeatedly occupied the base runway and camped on the bombing ranges in
protest, facing arrest and jail, while their supporters have engaged in a
series of civil disodedience actions at government offices in Ottawa and
Toronto.  The struggle continues, with over 300 related arrests in 1989.

In the next year, a major challenge facing anti-nuclear activists will be to
expose the illusion of a diminished nuclear threat.  Image-makers in the Bush
administration will strive to finally silence nuclear critics by offering
"cosmetic disarmament", in the form of an "arms reduction" treaty to eliminate
up to half of the strategic nuclear arsenal.

Yet the weapons most likely to be disarmed under the terms of a potential
treaty - the land-based force of 1,000 Minuteman nuclear missiles in silos
throughout the heartland of the United States - are in fact the least
threatening. While offering to sacrifice silo-based missiles to public demand
for nuclear weapons cuts, the Pentagon has clearly stated its intent to
continue production of the more modern, less vulnerable weapons which are
suitable to first-strike strategies; weapons such as Trident submarines, air-
and sea-launched cruise missiles, the Stealth bomber and mobile, land-based
missiles (the MX rail-garrison and/or Midgetman).

While direct actionists have opposed all of these systems to varying degrees,
it is the Trident nuclear submarine and its highly-accurate D-5 missile which
are being most vigorously opposed.  At the Trident's east coast homeport at
Kings Bay, Georgia, the Metanoia Community has supported an increasing level
of nonviolent resistance over the last three years.  Arrests (105 in 1989) and
jail terms have increased as the base comes into full operation.  Across the
southern states, communities of resistance are preparing to protest and
blockade the "nuclear train," expected to return to the tracks in early 1990
to transport warheads to Kings Bay from the Pantex assembly plant near
Amarillo, Texas.  Trident resistance will also continue at sites in California
and Utah, where the D-5 missile is designed, tested and assembled; at the west
coast homeport at Bangor, Washington; and in Groton, Connecticut, where
Trident submarines are built.

In the spring of 1990, civil resisters at the Nevada test site will
demonstrate in concert with nuclear testing opponents in Kazakhstan, the
Soviet Union, who call theirs the "Nevada Movement", in solidarity with direct
actionists in the United States.

In this next decade, anti-nuclear resisters will be joined by citizens groups
concerned with the environmental hazards of weapons production and nuclear
waste disposal.  Nuclear weapons plants remain closed in several states as the
secret poisoning of surrounding communities over the last forty years has come
to light.  Activists are preparing direct action campaigns to "Stop the
Restart" of these facilities, and prevent replacement factories from being
built.  And at the end of the nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear waste dumps nearly
completed in New Mexico and under consideration in New York and Nevada are
facing nonviolent opposition at the dump sites and along transportation
routes.

If the l99O's are truly to be the "Decade of the Environment", nonviolent
direct action and civil disobedience will play a significant role in making
the environment of the third millenium a non-nuclear one, as well.

Jack and Felice Cohen-Joppa
the Nuclear Resister, January 19, 1990.
PO Box 43383
Tucson
AZ 85733
(602)323-8697

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN WIKIPEDIA:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-nuclear_protests_in_the_United_States

Anti-nuclear protests in the United States

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Main article: Anti-nuclear movement in the United States

Anti-nuclear protest at Harrisburg in 1979, following the Three Mile Island Accident.

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There were many anti-nuclear protests in the United States which captured national public attention during the 1970s and 1980s. These included the well-known Clamshell Alliance protests at Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant and the Abalone Alliance protests at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, where thousands of protesters were arrested. Other large protests followed the 1979 Three Mile Island accident.^[1]

A large anti-nuclear demonstration was held on May 6, 1979, in Washington D.C., when 125,000 people^[2] including the Governor of California, attended a march and rally against nuclear power.^[3] In New York City on September 23, 1979, almost 200,000 people attended a protest against nuclear power.^[4] Anti-nuclear power protests preceded the shutdown of theShoreham, Yankee Rowe, Millstone I, Rancho Seco, Maine Yankee, and about a dozen other nuclear power plants.^[5]

On June 12, 1982, one million people demonstrated in New York City's Central Park against nuclear weapons and for an end to the cold war arms race. It was the largest anti-nuclear protest and the largest political demonstration in American history.^[6][7]International Day of Nuclear Disarmament protests were held on June 20, 1983 at 50 sites across the United States.^[8][9] In 1986, hundreds of people walked from Los Angeles to Washington DC in the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament.^[10] There were many Nevada Desert Experience protests and peace camps at the Nevada Test Site during the 1980s and 1990s.^[11][12]

On May 1, 2005, 40,000 anti-nuclear/anti-war protesters marched past the United Nations in New York, 60 years after theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.^[13][14] This was the largest anti-nuclear rally in the U.S. for several decades.^[15] In the 2000s there were protests about, and campaigns against, several new nuclear reactor proposals in the United States.^[16][17][18] In 2013, four aging, uncompetitive, reactors were permanently closed: San Onofre 2 and 3 in California, Crystal River 3 in Florida, and Kewaunee in Wisconsin.^[19][20] Vermont Yankee, in Vernon, is scheduled to close in 2014, following many protests. Protesters in New York State are seeking to close Indian Point Energy Center, in Buchanan, 30 miles from New York City.^[20]

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Background
• 2 Bodega Bay
• 3 Women Strike for Peace
• 4 Montague Nuclear Power Plant
• 5 Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant
• 6 Diablo Canyon Power Plant
• 7 Trojan Nuclear Power Plant
• 8 Washington events, August 1985
• 9 Three Mile Island accident
• 10 Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant
• 11 Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant
• 12 Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant
• 13 Rancho Seco Nuclear Power Plant
• 14 Protest against the Arms Race
• 15 Seneca Women’s Peace Camp
• 16 Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant
• 17 San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station
• 18 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• 19 International Day of Nuclear Disarmament
• 20 Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament
• 21 Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Plant
• 22 Nevada Test Site
• 23 Y-12 Weapons Plant
• 24 Naval Base Kitsap
• 25 White House Peace Vigil
• 26 Other
• 27 See also
• 28 References
• 29 Bibliography

Background[edit]

The anti-nuclear movement in the United States have undertaken public protests and acts of civil disobedience which have included occupations of nuclear plant sites. Other salient strategies have included lobbying, petitioning government authorities, influencing public policy through referendum campaigns and involvement in elections. Anti-nuclear groups have also tried to influence policy implementation through litigation and by participating in licencing proceedings.^[21]

Bodega Bay[edit]

Pacific Gas & Electric planned to build the first commercially viable nuclear power plant in the USA at Bodega Bay, a fishing village fifty miles north of San Francisco. The proposal was controversial and conflict with local citizens began in 1958.^[22] In 1963 there was a large demonstration at the site of the proposed Bodega Bay Nuclear Power Plant.^[23] The conflict ended in 1964, with the forced abandonment of plans for the power plant. Attempts to build a nuclear power plant in Malibu were similar to those at Bodega Bay and were also abandoned.^[22]

Women Strike for Peace[edit]

Women Strike for Peace during theCuban Missile Crisis

On November 1, 1961, at the height of the Cold War, about 50,000 women brought together by Women Strike for Peacemarched in 60 cities in the United States to demonstrate against nuclear weapons. It was the largest national women's peace protest of the 20th century.^[24] About 1,500 women led by Dagmar Wilson gathered at the foot of the Washington Monument and President John F. Kennedy watched from a window at the White House. The protest helped "push the United States and the Soviet Union into signing a nuclear test-ban treaty two years later".^[24][25]

Montague Nuclear Power Plant[edit]

On 22 February 1974, Washington's Birthday, organic farmer Sam Lovejoy took a crowbar to the weather-monitoring tower which had been erected at the Montague Nuclear Power Plant site. Lovejoy felled 349 feet of the 550 foot tower and then took himself to the local police station, where he presented a statement in which he took full responsibility for the action. Lovejoy's action galvanized local public opinion against the plant.^[26][27] The Montague nuclear power plant proposal was canceled in 1980,^[28] after $29 million was spent on the project.^[26]

Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant[edit]

See also: Paul Gunter and Macy Morse

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.^[29] Over a period of thirteen years more than 4,000 citizens, many associated with the Clamshell Alliance anti-nuclear group, committed non-violent civil disobedience at Seabrook:^[30]

• 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.^[30]
• August 22, 1976: 188 activists from New England were arrested at the Seabrook site.^[30][31]
• May 2, 1977: 1,414 protesters were arrested at Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant.^[5][32][33] The protesters who were arrested were expected to be "released on their own recognizance", but this did not happen. Instead, they were charged with criminal trespass and asked to post bail ranging from $100 to $500. They refused and were then held in five national guard armories for 12 days. The Seabrook conflict, and role of New Hampshire Governor Meldrim Thomson, received much national media coverage.^[34]

• May 13, 1977: 550 protestors were freed after being detained for thirteen days.^[35]
• June 1978: some 12,000 people attended a protest at Seabrook.^[5][33]
• May 25–27, 1980: Police use tear gas, riot sticks and dogs to drive 2,000 demonstrators away from the Seabrook site.^[36]
• May 24, 1986: 74 anti-nuclear demonstrators were arrested in protests.^[37][38]
• October 17, 1988: 84 people were arrested at the Seabrook plant.^[39]
• 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.^[30][40]

Diablo Canyon Power Plant[edit]

See also: Anti-nuclear movement in California

Seabrook's Clamshell Alliance inspired the formation of California's Abalone Alliance, a coalition that included sixty member groups by 1981. The Abalone Alliance staged blockades and occupations at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant site between 1977 and 1984.^[41] Nearly two thousand people were arrested during a two-week blockade in 1981, exceeding Seabrook as the largest number arrested at an anti-nuclear protest in the United States.^[41] Specific protests included:

• August 6, 1977: The Abalone Alliance held the first blockade at Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California, and 47 people were arrested.^[42]
• August 1978: almost 500 people were arrested for protesting at Diablo Canyon.^[42]
• April 8, 1979: 30,000 people marched in San Francisco to support shutting down the Diablo Canyon Power Plant.^[43]
• June 30, 1979: about 40,000 people attended a protest rally at Diablo Canyon.^[44]
• September 1981: close to 2,000 arrests were made during attempted occupation of Diablo Canyon.^[42][45]
• May 1984: about 130 demonstrators showed up for start-up day at Diablo Canyon, and five were arrested.^[46]

In April 2011, there was demonstration of 300 people at Avila Beach calling for the closure of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant and a halt to its relicensing application process. The event, organized by San Luis Obispo-based anti-nuclear group Mothers for Peace, was in response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.^[47]

Trojan Nuclear Power Plant[edit]

There was opposition to the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant from its inception, and this included non-violent protests organized by the Trojan Decommissioning Alliance. The Alliance organized the first major direct action protest at Trojan in August 1977, and a second round of protests took place that November. Scores of demonstrators were arrested, and in December 1977 a jury found 96 protesters not guilty of criminal trespass. There was another protest in August 1978, which led to about 280 arrests.^[48] In the 1980s and early 1990s, Portland activist Lloyd Marbet and his group, Forelaws on Board, "became Trojan's leading opponents".^[48]

Washington events, August 1985[edit]

Each of the 2,500 pews in the cathedral was covered with a cloth panel, decorated by The Ribbon International anti-nuclear group.

Assembly of the Ribbon gets underway at the United States Capitol, Washington, D.C.

The interfaith service for peace and nuclear disarmament, held on August 3 at the Washington National Cathedral, was attended by 5,000 people. Cathedral staff reported that it was the second-largest crowd ever hosted in the building.^[49] Over 4,000 handmade cloth panels were on display during the service. Each pew was decorated by The Ribbon International group, and additional cloth ribbons were draped and tied in various locations around the building. Twenty bagpipers in Highland dress led a procession of 200 people carrying ribbons into the cathedral. The service also included dancing, meditation, and a performance by the Howard University Gospel Choir.^[50][51] Survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were in attendance both at the church service and during The Ribbon event the next day.

When all 27,000 individual cloth panels were joined together on August 4, it created a ribbon 18 miles (29 km) long.^[52] Don Wilcox of The Craft Report described it as "the largest collaborative craft event in American history".^[53] The Ribbon wrapped around the Pentagon building, through the Pentagon parking lot, down the foot paths alongside the Jefferson Davis Highwayand Washington Boulevard, crossed the Potomac River into Washington D.C. at the Arlington Memorial Bridge, and travelled into the National Mall area. The Ribbon then went past the Lincoln Memorial, along the south side of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, continuing east along the National Mall, and around the U.S.Capitol Building. It then turned west along the north side of the National Mall, went around the Ellipse by the White House, passed the Lincoln Memorial, crossed the Potomac River again and returned to the Pentagon. When the chain of panels was completed, hundreds of balloons were released near the Lincoln Memorial. The entire route was lined with people, and crowds gathered at the three designated speaking areas (the Pentagon, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Capitol). Singers, including Pete Seeger and Tom Chapin, rotated between the three stage areas, performing anti-war songs.^[54][55]

Three Mile Island accident[edit]

President Jimmy Carter leavingThree Mile Island for Middletown, Pennsylvania, April 1, 1979

See also: Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective

Even before the Three Mile Island accident, the nuclear industry was facing considerable adverse public opinion. A "sizeable and tenacious opposition movement had caused significant delays" in the licensing and construction of new power plants in the United States. The TMI accident stimulated a rise in anti-nuclear sentiment.^[56]

The American public were concerned about the release of radioactive gas from the Three Mile Island accident and many mass demonstrations opposing nuclear power took place across the country in the following months. The largest one was held in New York City in September 1979 and involved two hundred thousand people; speeches were given by Jane Fonda and Ralph Nader.^[4][57][58] The New York rally was held in conjunction with a series of nightly “No Nukes” concerts given at Madison Square Garden from September 19 through 23 by Musicians United for Safe Energy.

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.^[3][43]

Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant[edit]

See also: Carrie Barefoot Dickerson

• June 2, 1979: about 500 people were arrested for protesting about construction of the Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant in Oklahoma.^[33][59]
• February 1982: following years of legal action and protests, it was announced that the plant would not be built.^[60][61]

Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant[edit]

See also: Licensed to Kill? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Shoreham Power Plant

• August 12, 1978: Forty protesters are arrested at the first anti-Shoreham demonstration.^[62][63]

• June 3, 1979: following the Three Mile Island accident, some 15,000 people attended a rally organized by the Shad Alliance and about 600 were arrested atShoreham Nuclear Power Plant in New York.^[62][64][65]

• 1989: after many years of protests, the completed Shoreham plant was closed without generating any commercial electrical power.^[64][66]

Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant[edit]

See also: Radioactive contamination from the Rocky Flats Plant, Rocky Flats Truth Force and Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West

The Rocky Flats Plant was a United States nuclear weapons production facility near Denver, Colorado that operated from 1952 to 1992. It was under the control of theUnited States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) until 1977, when the AEC was replaced by the Department of Energy (DOE). Weapons production ended in 1989 after FBI agents raided the Rocky Flats plant. Operators of the plant later pleaded guilty to criminal violations of environmental law. The Plant was subject to many public protests:

• April 28, 1979: 15,000 people demonstrated against the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, making the link between nuclear power and nuclear weaponry.^[67][68]
• October 15, 1983: Large demonstration at Rocky Flats.^[69][70]
• August 10, 1987: 320 demonstrators were arrested after they tried to force a one-day shutdown of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant.^[71]
• August, 1989: An estimated 3,500 people turned out for a demonstration at Rocky Flats.^[70]

Rancho Seco Nuclear Power Plant[edit]

In 1979, Abalone Alliance members held a 38-day sit-in at 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.^[72] In 1989, Sacramento voters voted to shut down the Rancho Seco power plant.^[73]

Protest against the Arms Race[edit]

On June 12, 1982, one million people demonstrated in New York City's Central Park against nuclear weapons and for an end to the cold war arms race. It was the largest anti-nuclear protest and the largest political demonstration in American history.^[6][7]

Seneca Women’s Peace Camp[edit]

Camp Poster

The Seneca Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice was located in Romulus, in Seneca County, New York, adjacent to the Seneca Army Depot. It took place mainly during the summer of 1983. Thousands of women came to participate and rally against nuclear weapons and the “patriarchal society” that created and used those weapons. The purpose of the Encampment was to stop the scheduled deployment of Cruise and Pershing II missiles before their suspected shipment from the Seneca Army Depot to Europe that fall. The Encampment continued as an active political presence in the Finger Lakes area for at least 5 more years, supporting anti-nuclear education and the connections between eco-feminism, non-violence, the need for civil disobedience and ideas of perma-culture, and sustainability.

Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant[edit]

In the 1970s and 1980s there were many protests at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant which attempted to block access to the plant.^[74]

• September 23, 1979: some 167 protesters were arrested at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant.^[33]
• January 2006: 100 anti-nuclear supporters demonstrated at the front door of Entergy Nuclear, and eleven people were arrested for trespassing.^[75][76]
• October 2006: 26 people were arrested outside the Brattleboro offices of owner Entergy Nuclear; the demonstration drew about 200 people.^[77][78]
• April 27, 2007: Seven anti-nuclear activists were arrested after chaining themselves to a fence at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The protesters, who call themselves the "Raging Grannies", wanted the plant shut down and have engaged in dozens of similar actions since December 2005.^[79]
• November 2008: About 15 people held a rowdy protest against Vermont Yankee in the offices of the Public Service Board that regulates utilities.^[80][81]
• April 2009: A rally and two full-page advertisements in The Burlington Free Press, which mocked the Vermont Yankee Power Plant, were paid for by a newly formed group, The Clean Green Vermont Alliance.^[82]
• April 2009: About 150 activists marched from Montpelier's City Hall to the State House to urge lawmakers to back development of clean energy sources such aswind power and solar power; the marchers had gathered 12,000 signatures in support of closing Vermont Yankee.^[83][84]
• September 2009: Frances Crowe and three other women were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.^[85]
• January 2010: A coalition of anti-nuclear activists participated in a 126-mile walk from Brattleboro to Montpelier in an effort to block the re-licensing of Vermont Yankee. About 175 people took part in the March, some joining for the day and some for longer stretches.^[86]
• On February 24, 2010, a large number of anti-nuclear activists and private citizens gathered in Montpelier to be at hand as the Vermont Senate voted 26 to 4 to not issue the Vermont Yankee reactor the "Public Good" certificate it needed for continued operation past 2012. Under Vermont law the re-license would have to be approved by both houses to continue operation.^[87]
• March 2011: 600 people gathered for a weekend protest outside the Vermont Yankee plant. The demonstration was held to show support for the thousands of Japanese people who are endangered by possible radiation from the Fukushima I nuclear accidents.^[88]
• March 2012: More than 130 protesters were arrested at the corporate headquarters of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, on the first day of the plant's operation after the expiration of its original 40-year license.^[89]
• March 2013: More than 500 people, carrying banners and chanting "shut it down", marched through downtown Brattleboro in protest against Vermont Yankee.^[90]

On August 27, 2013, Entergy announced in a press release that it would close Vermont Yankee by the end of 2014.^[91]

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station[edit]

• August 6, 1977: about a thousand anti-nuclear protesters marched outside the San Onofre nuclear generation station, while units 2 & 3 were under construction.^[92]
• June 22, 1980: about 15,000 people attended a protest near San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California.^[33]
• March 2012: 200 activists protested the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station to mark the one-year anniversary of the nuclear meltdowns in Fukushima, Japan.^[93]

On June 7, 2013, Southern California Edison announced it would "permanently retire" Unit 2 and Unit 3, ending their attempt to restart the plant at a reduced capacity.^[94]

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory[edit]

The Livermore Action Group organized many mass protests, from 1981 to 1984, against nuclear weapons which were being produced by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Peace activists Ken Nightingale and Eldred Schneider were involved.^[95] On June 22, 1982, more than 1,300 anti-nuclear protesters were arrested in a nonviolent demonstration.^[96] More recently, there has been an annual protest against nuclear weapons research at Lawrence Livermore. In August 2003, 1,000 people protested at Livermore Labs against "new-generation nuclear warheads".^[97] In the 2007 protest, 64 people were arrested.^[98] More than 80 people were arrested in March 2008 while protesting at the gates.^[99]

International Day of Nuclear Disarmament[edit]

International Day of Nuclear Disarmament protests were held on June 20, 1983 at 50 sites across the United States. Many of the protests were against corporations involved in nuclear weapons production. Almost a thousand members of the Livermore Action Group were arrested at one demonstration.^[8][9]

Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament[edit]

In 1986, hundreds of people walked from Los Angeles to Washington DC in what is referred to as the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament. The march took nine months to traverse 3,700 miles (6,000 km), advancing approximately fifteen miles per day.^[10]

Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Plant[edit]

Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Plant, shut down in 1992, was subject to years of protests by environmentalists.^[100]

Nevada Test Site[edit]

Members of Nevada Desert Experience hold a prayer vigil during the Easter period of 1982 at the entrance to the Nevada Test Site.

See also: Corbin Harney

From 1986 through 1994, two years after the United States put a hold on full-scale nuclear weapons testing, 536 demonstrations were held at the Nevada Test Site involving 37,488 participants and 15,740 arrests, according to government records.^[101]These are just a few details:

• January, 1987: The actor Martin Sheen and 71 other anti-nuclear protesters were arrested at the Nevada Test Site in a demonstration marking the 36th anniversary of the first nuclear test there.^[102]
• February 5, 1987: More than 400 people were arrested, when they tried to enter the nation's nuclear proving grounds after nearly 2,000 demonstrators held a rally to protest nuclear weapons testing. Those arrested included the astronomer Carl Sagan and the actors Kris Kristofferson, Martin Sheen, and Robert Blake. Five Democratic members of Congress attended the rally: Thomas J. Downey, Mike Lowry, Jim Bates, Leon E. Panetta and Barbara Boxer.^[11][103]
• August 9, 1987: A total of 228 people demonstrating against nuclear weapons were arrested at the Nevada Test Site.^[71]
• September 30, 1987: 110 demonstrators, including seven pediatricians, were arrested for civil disobedience; charges were later dropped.^[104]
• March 20, 1989: 75 protesters, including Louis Vitale, were arrested for trespassing in a peaceful Palm Sunday demonstration.^[105]
• April 20, 1992: 493 anti-nuclear protesters were arrested on misdemeanor charges, as demonstrators clashed with guards at an annual Easter demonstration against weapons testing at the remote desert site.^[12]
• August 6, 1995: 500 people gathered to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.^[106]
• 1997: Over 2,000 people turned out for a demonstration and 700 were arrested.^[107]
• August 2005: About 200 peace activists, including actor Martin Sheen, gathered for a nonviolent demonstration outside the gates; dozens were given citations and released after crossing police lines.^[108]
• May 2006: 200 activists protested the Divine Strake explosives test, and 40 were arrested.^[109]
• April 2007: Nevada Desert Experience protest, where 39 people were cited by police.^[110]

Y-12 Weapons Plant[edit]

April 2011 OREPA rally at the Y-12 entrance

Since 1988, Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance has organized non-violent direct action protests at the Y-12 National Security Complex, in an effort to close down the weapons plant. Sister Mary Dennis Lentsch, a Catholic nun, has been arrested many times for protesting at the Oak Ridge facility. She has said, "I believe the continuing weapons production at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is in direct violation of the treaty obligations of the United States and consequently, is a violation of Article 6 of the US Constitution”.^[111] In 2011, Rev. Bill Bichsel, an 84-year-old priest, received a prison sentence of three months for trespassing on federal property at the Y-12 complex.^[112] In 2012, there have been protests about the proposed new Uranium Processing Facility, which is expected to cost $7.5 billion.^[113]

In July 2012, Megan Rice, an 82-year-old nun and two fellow pacifists entered the Y-12 complex and spray-painted antiwar slogans on a building that houses nuclear bomb fuel. The anti-nuclear activists, who got past fences and security sensors before dawn on July 28, spent several hours in the Complex, conducting a Christian peace ritual, before they were stopped by a lone guard. The security breach prompted private experts to criticize the Department of Energy’s safeguarding of nuclear stockpiles. The agency is to reappraise security measures across its nuclear weapons program.^[114]

Naval Base Kitsap[edit]

There have been anti-nuclear protests at Naval Base Kitsap for many years.^[115] 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.^[116]
• 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.^[117]
• November 2, 2009: Five protestors, including Jesuit Priest William J. Bichsel, S.J. were arrested for breaking through two levels of security to protest the nuclear weapons stored at the base. The protesters walked to a bunker where the weapons were stored and spilled blood, hung posters and prayed.^[118]

White House Peace Vigil[edit]

The White House Peace Vigil, June 2006

Thomas, Concepcion Picciotto and Ellen Thomas are the founders of the longest running anti-nuclear peace vigil in the US at the White House Peace Vigil, Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C..^[119][120]

Other[edit]

• April 5, 1990: Culmination of a campaign in rural Allegany County, where hundreds of protesters stopped state officials from surveying a potential nuclear waste dump site.^{[121][122][123]}
• May 1, 2005: 40,000 anti-nuclear/anti-war protesters march past the UN in New York, 60 years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.^[13][14]
• 2008-2013: Protests about several proposed nuclear reactors.^[16][17]