Kind of a Drag at Seabrook Nuke Protest in 1980

The Christian Science Monitor called it a “costly weekend of futility.” The New York Times reported 1,500 demonstrators vowing to occupy the nuclear power plant construction site at Seabrook “were easily turned away this afternoon by handfuls of state policemen and National Guardsmen.” Police and guardsmen used guard dogs, nightsticks, fire hoses, pepper gas, and Mace to defeat the planned occupation.

Protesters equipped with plywood shields, bolt-cutters, ropes and chains were able to breach the 8-foot tall chain link fence around the 130-acre site, the Times reported. But protesters were unable to stand up against police and guardsmen. Two officers and a dozen protesters were injured but there were few arrests.

The Times report continued: “Taking care to step around residents’ newly planted gardens, the protesters surged forward and backward as police officers equipped for riot duty pushed them away from holes in the fence and sprayed the crowd with teargas while half a dozen helicopters hovered at treetop level.”

Protesters blocked roads with trees, rocks and debris that was quickly cleared away by bulldozers. Locals, meanwhile, did a “brisk business” selling sandwiches, ice cream and “No Nuke Lemonade.”

Defending the nuclear plant site to date had cost Public Service Company of New Hampshire (PSNH) an estimated $750,000, according to the Monitor, with $177,000 authorized by the state to handle the 1980 demonstrations.

Despite the failed occupation of the nuclear plant site, leaders of the Coalition for Direct Action at Seabrook who led the protest, suggested their efforts had at least drawn attention to the anti-nuclear cause. Other groups – including the American Friends Service Committee, Nuclear Information and Resource Services, the Clamshell Alliance, and Physicians for Social Responsibility – suggested peaceful rallies, marches and public education were the key to turning the tide against nuclear power and nuclear weapons, not violent lawless encounters.

As the cost of the Seabrook station grew from an initial estimate of less than $1 billion to more than $3 billion, some protesters were holding out hope that financial institutions backing the plant would lose faith in the project. “The financial community is beginning to understand that nuclear power isn’t as cheap an option as they’ve been led to believe,” one anti-nuclear spokesperson told the Monitor.

Two Seabrook reactors were initially planned but only one was completed due to construction delays, cost overruns and troubles obtaining financing, according to Wikipedia. The plant took 10 years longer to open than planned at a total cost of about $7 billion.

Copyright J. Dennis Robinson, all rights reserved.