In recent weeks, 21 people were arrested at the gates of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power reactor for non-violent civil disobedience. Yankee is three miles from Massachusetts and a stone’s throw from New Hampshire.
On September 23 at Yankee, 10 people were arrested. The protest was organized by the Burlington Quakers www.BurlingtonQuakers.org. On September 12, also at Yankee, 11 protesters were arrested in a protest organized by the Shut It Down Affinity Group, which can be contacted via Frances Crowe of Northampton, or www.NukeBusters.org.
Before the group was arrested on September 12, they occupied the offices of the Brattleboro Chamber of Commerce, which is a subsidiary of the USA Chamber of Commerce, which on September 7, joined Entergy Corporation of Louisiana in suing Vermont to try to overturn Vermont’s law that says Vermont Yankee had to close permanently on March 21. Entergy owns Yankee.
Among the local companies that choose to pay dues to the USA Chamber of Commerce are:
-Brattleboro Food Co-op;
-Northampton and Greenfield food co-ops, also known as River Valley Market and Green Fields Market;
-Keene Sentinel daily newspaper;
-Brattleboro Commons newspaper;
-Springfield Republican newspaper.
The USA Chamber of Commerce spends millions of dollars annually lobbying politicians to lower the minimum wage. Surveys have shown that the vast majority of Americans want the minimum wage raised. In one year, 2004, the Chamber spent more than $24 million on lobbying, according to the Washington Post. The Chamber paid for full-page ads in the New York Times and other newspapers attacking workers’ unions.
At Vermont Yankee, a major accident or act of sabotage would kill thousands of people and leave an area the size of the Valley uninhabitable. Such a disaster is so likely that no insurance company will insure the facility; taxpayers would pay the costs of a meltdown.
The hundreds of tons of nuclear waste at Vermont Yankee is the most toxic material on earth. The waste is so dangerous that it must be guarded 24 hours a day for the next 1 million years, according to the federal government. The electricity from Vermont Yankee is not needed, according to the state of Vermont.
On May 2, 1977, police arrested 1,414 protesters at the Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire. In June 1978, some 12,000 people attended a protest at Seabrook. In August 1978, almost 500 people were arrested for protesting at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California. In May 1979, in Washington, D.C., about 70,000 people, including the governor of California, attended a march and rally against nuclear power. On June 2, 1979, about 500 people were arrested for protesting construction of the Black Fox nuclear power plant in Oklahoma. The next day, 15,000 people attended a rally at the Shoreham nuclear power plant on Long Island; about 600 were arrested. On June 30, 1979, about 38,000 people attended a protest rally at Diablo Canyon. On Aug. 23, 1979, in New York City, about 200,000 people attended a rally against nuclear power. On Sept. 23, 1979, about 167 protesters were arrested at Vermont Yankee. On June 22, 1980, about 15,000 people attended a protest near the San Onofre nuclear power plant in California.
No new nuclear power plants have been ordered and built in the U.S. since 1978.
On March 22, 2012 in Brattleboro, 137 people were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience to close Vermont Yankee. About 1,500 people marched about three miles from downtown Brattleboro to Entergy's office, where they cheered in support of the people who were arrested.
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This photos was taken on September 23. To enlarge it, click on it, then scroll down and click "see full size image." photo by Elizabeth Wood
Protests preceded the permanent shutdown of Shoreham, Yankee Atomic, Millstone I, Rancho Seco, Maine Yankee and at least a dozen other nuclear power plants. An article in the June 2007 issue of the Journal of American History did not hesitate to give protesters credit for the decline of the nuclear power industry: "The protesters lost their battle [when Diablo Canyon opened in 1984], but in a sense they won the larger war, for nuclear plant construction ended across the country in 1986."
Bob Mulholland ran a successful campaign to close the Rancho Seco nuclear power plant near Sacramento, Calif. Rancho Seco was closed in 1989 because the people of Sacramento voted to close it.
Mulholland, who now works for the California Democratic Party, told the Valley Post that the nuclear industry dramatically outspent the antinuclear groups in advertising before the referendum vote.
"David can beat Goliath," he told the Valley Post. "We had a New England Town Meeting-style community debate and people saw that the industry was lying. Closing Rancho Seco was the best thing our community ever did."
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More information about Vermont Yankee, and the movement to close it is at:
http://valleypost.org/2007/11/09/what-can-history-nuclear-power-teach-us...
Correction
The Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce is not affiliated with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Thus, as dues-paying members of the Brattleboro chamber, neither are we.
Jeff Potter
Editor, The Commons
Hattie Nestel lives in Athol,
Hattie Nestel lives in Athol, Masachusetts. She was one of the people arrested on September 12. She writes: "After a United States Chamber of Commerce announcement that it had joined Entergy’s lawsuit to oppose State of Vermont legislation to shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, the Shut It Down Affinity Group visited the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce to determine its relationship with the US Chamber of Commerce. Greg Lesch, office and information technology manager of the Brattleboro Chamber, told the women that the Brattleboro Chamber is not affiliated with the US Chamber. He said the Brattleboro Chamber is a member of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. Priscilla Lynch of the Shut It Down group telephoned the Vermont Chamber from the Brattleboro offices and learned that the Vermont Chamber is a member of the US Chamber and that Entergy is a member of the Vermont Chamber through the Brattleboro Chamber."
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