The State - News from April 27, 1987

Fourteen people were arrested for trespassing at Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant as 300 people cheered the protest on the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The protesters were arrested when they stepped across the property line and sat down at the gate of the twin-reactor power plant near San Luis Obispo operated by Pacific Gas & Electric. The crowd, many wearing buttons stating “Remember Chernobyl, It Can Happen Here,” cheered as each person was led away by sheriff’s deputies to waiting vehicles. Protesters threw white flowers over the property line in remembrance of those who died at Chernobyl. The demonstration was one of many around the world to remember the April 26, 1986, accident which killed 31 Soviets, injured hundreds, forced 135,000 people to flee areas in the Ukraine and spread radiation around the globe.