Clamshell Alliance Timeline

 (last updated Dec. 2008)

April 10, 1963 Nuclear disaster on board the Thresher, nuclear sub from Portsmouth Navy Yard. 129 people lost at sea. Leo Goodman represents worker of Metal Trade Council accused of shoddy workmanship.

October 5 1966 Major accident (partial fuel meltdown) at the Enrico Fermi plant outside Detroit. This plant, a liquid metal fast breeder, had just opened earlier that year. United Auto Workers union (UAW) had strongly opposed the plant’s construction out of concern for health and safety of their members. Leo Goodman represents UAW. Read the rest of this entry »

CORPORATE AND GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE OF THE CLAMSHELL

 CIVIL LIBERTIES VIOLATED

 YELLOW JOURNALISM, 1970s STYLE

by Robin Read

Corporate and government surveillance of the Clamshell Alliance began with the inception of the organization in 1976, intensified in the weeks before the April 1977 occupation, and continued for the next several years. Fear mongering by right wing organizations and media, fed by the surveillance and infiltration, were among the factors that led Seabrook area residents to urge the Clamshell to call off its planned massive 1978 occupation and instead hold a three day legal rally on the plant site. The surveillance and infiltration contributed to internal divisions before and after the 1978 demonstration. Read the rest of this entry »

Carlene Peruse, Diane Garand, Tony and Louisa Santasucci

Robbie Leppzer, in his film Seabrook 77, interviewed Seabrook residents; following are excerpts.

 Carlene Peruse:

I have lived in Seabrook all of my life and I am all against the nuclear plant. I don’t want it; we don’t need it and we’re in hopes of stopping it.

My first thought, of course, is the radiation. I have children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. It won’t affect me so much, at my age, I’m 62, but the younger ones growing up, I’m afraid it definitely will. We took up a petition and had it put on the ballot. “Should there be a nuclear power plant in Seabrook?” The vote came out 768 “no” and 632 “yes. The selectman called it non-binding. Read the rest of this entry »

BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS

By Peter Kellman

It got to the point where the Clamshell had the political power to force the state of New Hampshire to force Public Service to allow the Clamshell to use three acres on the nuclear plant construction site for a two-day demonstration. Diane Garand walked down and got a building permit from the town of Seabrook for a stage, a windmill, a dome and a bridge. She wanted it done legally.

Part of the Clam’s deal with the state was that we could get on the property early for the construction and set up, but we couldn’t come through the main gate where the demonstrators would march in. The Seabrook town dump abutted Public Service property with a drainage ditch in between. Diane got permission for our set-up crews to go in through the dump. So we pre-fabbed a bridge, the Bridge Over Troubled Waters, that went from the dump to the demonstration site for the set-up crews to cross over onto the site.

After the demonstration, we had a ceremony at the Bridge over Troubled Waters and we donated the bridge to the town of Seabrook. The selectman who received it made a speech in which Seabrook accepted the bridge. He said that it was the first time in his memory that anything had been donated to the town of Seabrook.

How the Clamshell Alliance Got Its Name

By Renny Cushing

 The Clamshell Alliance got its name from the testimony of a SAPL witness, who testified that one of the effects of the cooling system, a total mortality system taking in more than a billion gallons of water a day, could destroy the “neuritic band” of pelagic clam larvae. By the way, the Clams can and do rightly claim a huge impact on the, I hope, permanent demise of nuclear power in this country. They cannot, however, claim one thing that SAPL achieved: the actual cessation of construction of the project – all
over the issue of the environmental impact of the cooling system.