Four lone anti-nuclear protesters this week shut down a private road a few hundred metres from the nuclear plant at Sizewell, Suffolk for 15 minutes without being challenged. No arrests were made, and in fact the police were NEGOTIATING with the protesters who had put concrete tubes around their arms to end the stand off. Think about that for one minute...four protesters successfully blocked access to a nuclear facility in England. More importantly, they laid across the road to the facility for 15 minutes before PLANT SECURITY noticed they were there...can you imagine if they had been TERRORISTS?One thing becomes abundantly clear...American communities being forced to play host to ancient, dangerous nuclear facilities for another 20 years have a very powerful weapon at their disposal. Civil Disobedience. We have over 20 million people who live within 50 miles of Indian Point. Properly organized, said facility could easily be laid siege too in a peaceful act of civil disobedience as hundreds, even thousands, or tens of thousands of protesters descended on the gates of the facility with their camping gear.
It is doubtful that County Commissioner Andy Spano would authorize the use of force to remove such protesters, and in fact he just might surprise everyone and join the fun by parking a RV across the entrance to the sight as a Command Center for such a peaceful protest. We could even shuttle people in shifts, keep a round the clock protest going for weeks, if not months. If Congressman John Hall grew a back bone, he could bring in the entire MUSE contingent, and we could turn it into the biggest spontaneous musical protest against the nuclear industry since the No Nukes concerts back in 1979. The traffic grid lock alone from such and event would prove conclusively that the Emergency Evacuation Plan will not work.
Such a act of Civil Disobedience would leave Senator Clinton no choice but to get off the NUCLEAR FENCE and choose sides in this confrontation. Quoting Arlo Guthrie, we would have us a MOVEMENT. Imagine similar events with local politicians joining in at other nuclear plants simultaneously. Vermont Yankee, Pilgrim, Oyster Creek, Millstone and others all besieged in the same fashion at the exact same time.
Illegal Aliens and their supporters put half a million people into the streets of Los Angeles demanding Amnesty...surely we can put ten or twenty thousand people out in front of say five or so nuclear reactors?
Press Association
Saturday December 1, 2007 10:28 AM
Four protesters blocked a private road leading to a power station to highlight the threat they say terrorists could pose if the nuclear industry was expanded.
Demonstrators said they stood a few hundred metres from the plant at Sizewell, Suffolk for 15 minutes without being challenged.
The group staged the protest days after plans were announced for a new generation of nuclear reactors in England.
Police said no arrests had been made and officers were negotiating with demonstrators. They said the three women and one man were fastened together by concrete filled tubes attached to their arms.
Protesters said they wanted to spell out the dangers of nuclear expansion to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
"We were lying across the road for 15 minutes fastened together before the security guards came," said one protester, Mell Harrison, 36, of Bungay, Suffolk.
"We were 200 metres from the reactor. If we can do it so can terrorists. Imagine that. We didn't get inside the fence. But protesters have done that before.
"If Gordon Brown wants to expand the nuclear industry he should realise that he will face an awful lot of opposition. All the old problems with nuclear power have not gone away.
"What will we do with the waste? What about coastal erosion and the effect that will have on plants. There are accidents. Three Mile Island and Chernobyl really happened. It could happen again. And what about terrorism?
Ms Harrison, who works for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, added: "The Government will discover that an awful lot of people have concerns and people will protest. The answer isn't nuclear power. We must explore alternatives."
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2007, All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment