{"id":25635,"date":"2024-04-08T11:56:01","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T01:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=25635"},"modified":"2024-04-08T11:56:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T01:56:08","slug":"45-years-after-three-mile-island-we-need-a-no-nukes-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=25635","title":{"rendered":"45 Years After Three Mile Island, We Need a \u2018No Nukes\u2019 Comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania went from a technological miracle to a pile of radioactive rubble in a matter of moments in 1979, the Portsmouth, New Hampshire office of the Clamshell Alliance became a hive of activity. I was working there at the time, fielding calls from activists and journalists from around the world. Everyone wanted our opinion since \u2014 over the previous few years \u2014 our nonviolent demonstrations to prevent the construction of the Seabrook nuclear power plant put us at the forefront of a growing social movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the arrests of 18 New Hampshire residents in our first act of civil disobedience in 1976 to more than 1,400 arrests the following spring to a permitted rally that drew some 18,000 protesters in 1978, the Clamshell Alliance touched off a grassroots anti-nuclear rebellion<\/a> that brought the \u201cNo Nukes\u201d message to communities across the country and into the popular culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that groundwork in place, Three Mile Island took our message to the next level. The idea that \u201cnuclear power is a bad way to generate electricity\u201d soon became accepted knowledge across the United States. Everyone from Wall Street tycoons to congressional staffers to ordinary voters now understood that the nuclear industry\u2019s promise of safe, clean and affordable power was a fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, in recent years this understanding has slowly eroded, as the industry has worked to tout its product as the answer to climate catastrophe. With the Biden administration now sinking billions into nuclear energy \u2014 and Congress on the verge of passing legislation to ease regulatory precautions on new reactors \u2014 the nuclear fraudsters are aiming for a comeback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s more, as he maintains, their continued use \u2014 along with building costly new reactors \u2014 make climate change worse<\/a> and the world less safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this in mind, \u201cseasoned Clams,\u201d as we jokingly call ourselves, have been holding regular meetings over Zoom \u2014 and occasionally in person \u2014 to strategize on how to bring our anti-nuclear message to younger generations, as well as fellow boomers, for whom Three Mile Island has become a faded memory. We ultimately want to refute the nuclear industry\u2019s claims that it has solved the problems posed by the old reactors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement on our new website<\/a>, we assert: \u201cA tsunami of nuclear power propaganda is sweeping the globe.\u201d According to Gunter, this propaganda is backed by a multi-billion-dollar nuclear promotion campaign funded by taxpayers via the Biden administration\u2019s Department of Energy. \u201cThey even have a plan<\/a> to convert coal-fired power plants to nuclear generation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billions of dollars in nuclear subsidies<\/a> were loaded into Biden\u2019s infrastructure bill, with billions more in the Inflation Reduction Act. Meanwhile, the Atomic Energy Advancement Act \u2014 which sailed through the U.S. House 365-36 last month \u2014 extends nuclear subsidies further by continuing the $16.6 billion cap on liability from nuclear accidents for the next 40 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe still unrealized total damage costs of a severe nuclear accident, as evidenced by ongoing nuclear catastrophes at Fukushima (13 years ago) and Chernobyl (38 years ago), are already running into the hundreds of billions of dollars,\u201d Gunter said, adding that Congress didn\u2019t even hold a public hearing on the liability cap extension.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As the new Clamshell website maintains, new nukes are not needed to avert a climate crisis. \u201cFar better options are being built much faster than nuclear power plants, at a fraction of the cost and without the grave hazards. They include solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, efficiency and conservation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea for this statement came from Anna Gyorgy, author of the influential 1979 book \u201cNo Nukes: Everyone\u2019s Guide to Nuclear Power.\u201d True to the Clams\u2019 old principles, the statement was drafted by two writers after consultation with a larger group, reviewed by a committee, and ultimately approved by consensus. We have also stuck to our belief that nonviolence is the best method for social movements to disrupt unjust systems and promote alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cNonviolence, in the tradition of King and Gandhi, is an effective way to challenge institutional injustice,\u201d said Gyorgy, who serves as communications coordinator for the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice in Western Massachusetts. \u201cNonviolence is also the best way to build the communities we need to get through crises caused by violence, racism, predatory capitalism, and climate disruption.\u201d Nuclear power and its evil twin, nuclear weapons, have no role in the future Gyorgy has been trying to build for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNukes just cannot compete with zero fuel cost solar and wind, and that means the era of baseload plants running on fossil and nuclear fuel is ending,\u201d said Roy Morrison, a former Clamshell staff member who has worked for years as a commercial solar energy developer. \u201cSolar arrays combined with energy storage from home rooftops already are acting as virtual power plants to meet utility demands for peak power.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

According to Morrison, new battery technology and plunging prices for solar will displace fuels that produce carbon dioxide. \u201cThe future for our economy and our planet lies with renewables, not nukes, oil, gas or coal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morrison and I first met in 1977, when were among hundreds jailed in a National Guard armory following the mass arrests at Seabrook. In 1979, when Three Mile Island melted down, we were working together in Clamshell\u2019s scruffy second-floor suite in downtown Portsmouth. With little money and a mimeograph machine \u2014 the most advanced technology in our possession \u2014 we did battle with a complex of utility companies, banks, engineering firms, and government agencies that were doing their best to foist nukes on the American public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a reporter from a national news agency called for our comment on the unfolding accident in Pennsylvania, I was the one who happened to pick up the phone. I don\u2019t remember exactly what I said, but I do remember that, at roughly the same time, Dresser Industries \u2014 the company responsible for the valve that malfunctioned at Three Mile Island \u2014 was buying pro-nuke display ads featuring Edward Teller, the physicist known as \u201cthe father of the H-bomb\u201d and a dedicated advocate for all things nuclear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the news story came out, it went something like, \u201cPhysicist Edward Teller says nukes are safe, but Arnie Alpert from the Clamshell Alliance says they aren\u2019t.\u201d It\u2019s a good memory, but more than that, it\u2019s a reminder that grassroots movements engaging in what John Lewis called \u201cgood trouble\u201d can shake up power structures and bring about change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the current moment, when renewable alternatives to fossil and fissile energy are urgently needed, the Clams are trying to figure out how to make it happen again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: https:\/\/goodmenproject.com\/featured-content\/45-years-after-three-mile-island-we-need-a-no-nukes-comeback\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Biden sinks billions into nuclear energy, members of the historic Clamshell Alliance are reuniting to spark a new wave of anti-nuke resistance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":25636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5248,3460,4556],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-25635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy-sustainability","category-nuclear","category-renewable-energy","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25637,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25635\/revisions\/25637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}