Part 3.Ê The Nuclear Juggernaut and Conclusion
Anti-nuclear energy actions did not begin
in 1977.Ê As early as 1973, Middletown
residents and Wesleyan professors like John MacDougall (sociology) worked
together to fight against a proposed nuclear power plant for Middletown, and
formed an organization, People's Action for Clean Energy (PACE).Ê While public sentiment still generally
favored nuclear power, the topic was not without controversy.Ê In Earth Action's publication, Earth Day
- The Beginning, they included an article critical of the Atomic Energy
Commission (which became the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1974) because of
its dual role of promoting nuclear energy and regulating the industry. It cited
concerns by scientists like Linus Pauling (referring to atmospheric nuclear
tests) that what the AEC classified as a tolerable dose of radioactivity could
still cause genetic damage, and thus condemned nuclear power plants for their
continuous "planned releases" of low-level radioactive materials into
the atmosphere.[1]
Back in Middletown, PACE's mobilization
against the plant helped convince its backers to select a different site.Ê In the end, the plant would never be
built.Ê Even with its original goal
accomplished, PACE did not dissolve, and protested against the Millstone plants
with other Connecticut groups.Ê By
1975/6, PACE had eight chapters around the state, with John MacDougall as the
head of the Middletown chapter.Ê PACE
never had many student members, with two exceptions: Jack Gray and Paul
Gionfriddo '75.Ê Soon after graduation,
Gionfriddo would fight nuclear power as a member of the state senate and as the
head of Middletown's PACE (succeeding MacDougall).Ê
An accident in Middletown in 1976 further
paved the way for an anti-nuclear movement in Middletown.Ê In April, a truck carrying low-level
radioactive waste from Millstone overturned on Washington Street in Middletown,Ê The waste had been placed inside a large
crate for added protection, but the planners failed to account for its added
height.Ê The crate struck an overpass,
causing the accident.Ê The Department of
Environmental Protection briefly considered evacuating the area (Middletown),
but concluded that there had not been any radioactive leakage.[2]Ê
The next step towards mobilizing Wesleyan
against nuclear power occurred at the October 23, 1976 demonstration near the
construction site of the Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire.Ê A carload of Wesleyan students, including
Jack Gray and Arnie Alpert '77 attended, and there they learned of a planned
occupation of Seabrook the following spring.[3]Ê Seabrook, though hours away in New
Hampshire, would become the first anti-nuclear action by significant numbers of
Wesleyan students because it was organized by other, more experienced
activists, and some Wesleyan students worried about taking actions against an
operation nuclear plant.[4]Ê Alpert took most of the initiative in
organizing an ad-hoc Seabrook Committee at Wesleyan, along with Bradley Hess
'80, one of the future leaders of the Nuclear Resistance Group at Wesleyan, and
Mark Roseland.Ê The Seabrook planning
meetings were run by consensus, with concern for the input of all participants,
reflecting the values of the organizers.[5]Ê On the regional level, the Clamshell
Alliance (founded in 1976) worked to coordinate the actions of various local
affinity groups.Ê It too operated by
consensus, with statewide groups like Connecticut Clamshell (CT Clam)
representing local groups like the one at Wesleyan.[6]
Wesleyan sent several busloads of
students to occupation of Seabrook on April 30 and the rally on May 1, with 40
arrested during the occupation.Ê They
were not alone- over 1400 other protestors were arrested along with them.[7]Ê In a letter to the Argus from 18 of the
detained students who managed to stay together, "We choose to
non-violently occupy this site because we feel that the dangers of nuclear
power·. would destroy much of the area's fishing resources, sacrifice the
tourist industry, [and] threaten it with radioactive
contamination[.]"Ê They then wrote
of their ideals: "The spirit of love, cooperation and peaceful coexistence
have been beautifully present throughout the experience.Ê The sense of collectivity of struggle, the
depth of commitment to non-violence, and the principled effort to invoke
non-hierarchical forms of democracy have demonstrated and created amazingly
high levels of energy."[8]Ê
Nationally, public opinion was turning
against nuclear power.Ê In May of 1979,
between 65 and 120,000 people marched on Washington against nuclear power,
including 50 people from Middletown.Ê
The protestors included mainstream groups like the PIRGs, and the Union
of Concerned Scientists.Ê As one participant
explained, "After the Three Mile Island Crisis, the movement has
'mushroomed.'"[9]Ê Compounding the problems for nuclear power
advocates, a movie about a nuclear accident, "The China Syndrome" had
become quite popular before TMI, and coincidentally, uranium prices
skyrocketed.Ê Consumer groups fought
against the rate hikes needed to finance the building of nuclear plants, and
groups affiliated with Clamshell worked to discourage investment in nuclear
power, using tactics like taking over the board room of the Bank of Boston, and
blocking the entrance of the New York Stock Exchange on the 50th
anniversary of the 1929 collapse.[10]Ê Sixteen Wesleyan students took part in the
NYSE demonstration and were arrested.[11]Ê
As the environmental movement approached
its tenth year of existence, it once again fell into the shadows of a larger
movement.Ê This time the movement was
University divestment from corporations doing business in South Africa because
of its racially discriminatory apartheid policy.Ê By the fall of 1980, NRG and the Ecology House were the only
active environmental organizations on campus.
The work of student like Jack Gray, Laura
Gibbons, and Mark Roseland in building connections between environmental and
social issues persisted.Ê Many activists
from the '77 Seabrook protest became involved with Professors Dick Ohman's Towards a Socialist America, and others
worked on alternative energy projects like building a solar powered house with
the CSiS program.Ê The philosophy of
social ecology would continue with ECOS '81, and apparently the Student Budget
Committee (SBC) felt it was important enough to fund it with money originally
intended for Spring Fling.[12]
The first environmentalists at Wesleyan
faced problems that would persist until the present.Ê These included making the university interested in issues of
energy and waste reduction beyond short-term financial savings, influencing the
behavior or more than a small number of students on campus, working with
Middletown on issues affecting both students and local residents, and making
environmentalism relevant to minority students at Wesleyan.Ê Their successes and shortcomings help
present today's environmentalists with an understanding of the origins of the
current situation at Wesleyan, and also illustrate trends in the national
environmental movement throughout its first decade.Ê It is the challenge for environmentalists of the coming decades
to meet these chronic problems with workable solutions, vindicating the hard
work of past Wesleyan students.
Return
to Early Environmentalism Index
[1] John Goffman and Arthur Tamplin,
"The AEC: Can We Survive the Peaceful Atom?" in Earth Day - The
Beginning, ed. Environmental Action (New York: Arno Press and the New York
Times, 1970), 126.
[2] Brian Shaw, "Nuke Carrier Crashes
But No danger is Seen," Wesleyan Argus, 9 April 1976, 4.
[3] Arnold Alpert, telephone interview by
author, December 1999.
[4] Laura Gibbons, telephone interview by
author, December 1999.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Arnold Alpert, telephone interview by
author, December 1999.
[7] Eric Menkes "40 Arrested at
Seabrook," Wesleyan Argus, 3 May 1977, 1.
[8] "A Letter for Seabrook,"
letters to the Editor, Wesleyan Argus, 6 May 1977, 3.
[9] "Turning Point!Ê May 6th March on
Washington," Hermes, 10 May 1979.
[10] Roy Morrison, "Clams in
Action," Peacework, July/August 1996, 10.
[11] Tim Redmond, "16 Wes Students
Arrested at Rally on Wall Street," Wesleyan Argus, 30 October
1979,1.
[12] ECOS '81 Budget Allocation sheet, WSA
files 1981.