Hundreds Arrested in Seabrook A-Plant Protest

Hundreds of people were arrested Saturday in a protest at the complete but unlicensed Seabrook nuclear power plant, which could win federal permission to begin operations late this year after a decade of delays.

The arrests began when about 700 demonstrators gathered outside the plant’s chain-link fences and, in a repeat of tactics from a much larger demonstration in June, began climbing the fences.

At the busiest of the six points where protesters climbed the fence, at least 300 people scaled it--including two confined to wheelchairs, many children and at least one infant in a backpack.

Among the demonstrators was Molly Yard, president of the National Organization for Women, who addressed the gathering but did not enter the plant grounds.

Yard said her appearance at the demonstration was her first public statement opposing nuclear power.

“To me, it is totally insane,” she said. “Why aren’t we doing something with solar energy? I find it’s just crazy what we’re doing.”

A spokesman for Seabrook’s owner, New Hampshire Yankee, said that the demonstration remained peaceful and that most protesters who climbed the fences did not resist arrest.

Seabrook police said 469 people were arrested for criminal trespass and six for disorderly conduct. However, some of those charged returned to the plant and were arrested a second time, police said.

More than 700 people were arrested in June during a three-day protest by about 3,000 anti-nuclear activists.

Spokesman Rob Williams said he believes the protesters are a vocal minority who do not represent the majority support among area residents for nuclear power.

“Most feel this plant is safe and it is needed,” Williams said, “and it is unfortunate that resources have to be tied up to accommodate this small vocal minority.”

More than 200 police officers, including New Hampshire state troopers and local police from Seabrook, Exeter and Portsmouth, were at the plant to make arrests.

The $6.2-billion Seabrook project, which was first proposed in 1972 and was originally expected to be completed in 1979, is 40 miles north of Boston on the New Hampshire seacoast. Opponents contend it is too close to populated areas to be safely evacuated in the event of a nuclear accident.

The main remaining obstacle to licensing of the plant is approval by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board of New Hampshire Yankee’s emergency evacuation plans for communities in Massachusetts surrounding Seabrook.