Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Aunt Carrie's War Against the Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant by Carrie B. Dickerson Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant. The Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant was proposed by the Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) in May 1973. The facility was to be built approximately 3 miles southwest of downtown Inola, Oklahoma, but still within town limits, and was to consist of two 1,150 MWe General Electric (GE) Boiling Water Reactors. In June 1979, about 500 people were arrested for protesting about construction of the Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant. In 1982, after nine years of court and legal challenges by Carrie Barefoot Dickerson and the Citizen's Action for Safe Energy (CASE) group, all plans were abandoned and no complex was ever built. It is believed to be the only nuclear power plant in the US to be canceled by a combination of legal and citizen action after construction had started. [1] [2] Aunt Carrie's War Against the Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant by Carrie B. Dickerson. Citizens of Oklahoma and the world will forever be indebted to Carrie Barefoot Dickerson for leading the efforts to make northeastern Oklahoma safer for future generations. In May 1973, Aunt Carrie, as she was known by her many supporters and friends, read a news article about Public Service of Oklahoma's plans to build the Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant near Inola, about 15 miles from Tulsa and a few miles from the Dickerson family farm. Recalling reports she had read earlier of wildlife birth defects coincident with effluent from the WWII Manhattan Project, she researched the current efforts to build nuclear power facilities. What she learned frightened and concerned her so much that despite her lack of political and publicity experience, she held a news conference at which she announced the formation of the political action group Citizens' Action for Safe Energy (CASE). Aunt Carrie and CASE, with co-chair Ilene Younghein of Oklahoma City, began an expensive but determined battle to educate the public and stop construction of the plant. Following her lead, other anti-nuclear organizations were formed in the area, and citizens from all walks of life and ethnic groups joined in the battle. After a nine-year struggle, PSO announced on Feb. 16, 1982, that they would not build the Black Fox facility. Black Fox was the only nuclear power plant to be cancelled by a combination of legal and citizen action after construction had started. During those nine years, Carrie and her husband, Robert, had to mortgage the family farm and sell their nursing home to help pay the bills and legal fees resulting from the struggle. Less than a year before the PSO announcement, Robert died of complications from a stroke. Robert's death just before the cancellation of the power plant left Carrie deeply in debt and without a reliable source of income. She and Robert believed that it was their duty, both as citizens and parents and as principled human beings, to make whatever sacrifices were necessary to protect the residents of northeastern Oklahoma and the world which would be endangered by the environmental side effects of uranium mining and processing. In recent years, her only source of income, other than Social Security, had been her health food store in Claremore, which she had to close in 2002. Carrie Barefoot Dickerson, was born May 24, 1917, in Okmulgee, Okla. Her marriage to prize-winning Cherokee dairy farmer and fellow OSU graduate, Charles Robert Dickerson in 1938, lasted 43 years until Robert's death. She was the mother of four, grandmother of five, and great-grandmother of four. Her professional endeavors have included work as a teacher, nutritionist, home demonstration agent, craftswoman, master quilter and designer, nurse, nursing-home co-owner and -operator, political and environmental activist, public speaker and writer. Her writing became a major focus twice in her life after the defeat of the Black fox plant. She wrote "Aunt Carrie's War Against Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant" in 1995 with the assistance of her daughter, Patricia Lemon, recording the story of her battle to prevent Public Service Co. of Oklahoma from building at Inola, OK. For many years, Carrie's youngest daughter Mary cared for her and helped her with her research. She was actively informing herself and others about alternative forms of energy, especially geo-thermal and wind energy. She had begun to bring her idea for a book about the history of wind power for young readers to life and was working with her daughter Patricia again. She also enlisted the help of Drumright, OK artist Gwen Ingram to illustrate the history of windmills throughout the world over the last fourteen centuries. Mary's unexpected death in 2005 cast a shadow over Carrie, but did not stop her from persevering on her project. She had a preliminary edit finished and printed in early 2006, and after much reading and discussion, had worked tirelessly to finish the book. She finished her final edit on Nov. 16 and died quietly in her sleep early the next morning. As her friends said, death could only overtake her while sleeping. She was too busy the rest of the time! Long-time area resident, teacher, businesswoman, and anti-nuclear activist Carrie Barefoot Dickerson died peacefully in her sleep early on the morning of Thursday, November 17, 2006 at the age of 89. Well-known for her determination and her ability to bring together disparate groups, she lived the principles of American democracy that her generation defended during World War II. Barefoot Dickerson, born May 24, 1917 to a pioneer family in Okmulgee County, attended the Rocky Hill and Nuyaka Mission schools there before beginning undergraduate studies in home economics education with emphasis on nutrition at Oklahoma State University, where she also earned an M.S. degree. Through their prize-winning 4-H work, she met her late husband, C.R. Dickerson, later an award-winning dairyman and veteran's agriculture teacher, on an Oklahoma Farmers' Union-sponsored trip to Washington, D.C. in 1936. They married in 1938, as undergraduates, and made their home on the Dickerson Farm east of Claremore. Barefoot Dickerson began her teaching career in 1943 at the German-speaking Mennonite Pleasant View community school east of Inola. She went on to teach in several Rogers and Mayes County schools and served as a home demonstration agent in the Cherokee communities of Muskogee and as a 4-H Club leader. About 1957, she resigned as home economics teacher at Claremore High School to begin a bakery offering whole-grain organic breads to customers all over northeastern Oklahoma. In 1964, she and her late husband founded Aunt Carrie's Nursing Home (later Wood Manor) in Claremore, where they, their late daughter, Mary, and their dedicated staff provided the loving care and nutritious meals that frail community elders needed for physical and mental health. At the age of 50, she began studying nursing at St. John's Hospital in Tulsa to fill a need at the nursing home. Then one day in 1973, Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) announced plans to build Black Fox nuclear-power plant near Inola. Then began the environmental work that pervaded the remaining four and a half decades of her life. Finally in 1981, an anticipated Corporation Commission decision prompted by the work of CASE (Citizens' Action for Safe Energy), the organization she founded to teach the public about the dangers posed by nuclear power, led to PSO's cancellation of the project. During the nine years of hearings, she became a master quilter, designing and creating works to occupy her fingers while she listened and that she could use to help raise money for legal fees once they consumed the proceeds from selling the nursing home. After Black Fox was cancelled, she supported herself by teaching quilting and with a health-foods store she and her daughter Mary operated. Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant. The Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant was proposed by the Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) in May 1973. The facility was to be built approximately 3 miles southwest of downtown Inola, Oklahoma, but still within town limits, and was to consist of two 1,150 MWe General Electric (GE) Boiling Water Reactors. In June 1979, about 500 people were arrested for protesting about construction of the Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant. In 1982, after nine years of court and legal challenges by Carrie Barefoot Dickerson and the Citizen's Action for Safe Energy (CASE) group, all plans were abandoned and no complex was ever built. It is believed to be the only nuclear power plant in the US to be canceled by a combination of legal and citizen action after construction had started. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Oklahomans prevent completion of Black Fox Nuclear Plant, 1973-1982. In May of 1973, the Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) announced plans to install Oklahoma’s first nuclear power plant in Inola, just east from Tulsa. It was to use two General Electric boiling-water reactors and the project was to cost $450 million. With the support of U.S. Senator Henry Bellmon, PSO advertised that the nuclear power plant could provide unlimited power and help economic growth in the area. The power plant promised the opportunity of thousands of construction jobs and new tax money of $5 million a year that could make the Inola school district the richest in the state. Many people in Inola welcomed the new construction plans. However, when Carrie Barefoot Dickerson, a Claremore teacher and nurse, read about the new nuclear plant, she educated herself about the risks of nuclear power and decided that the Black Fox Power Plant needed to be stopped. The proposed power plant would draw in 44 million gallons of the Verdigris River water each day to cool the reactors, only to dump the heated waste water back into the river three miles upstream of the intake pipe of Broken Arrow’s water supply. A 1965 study predicted a nuclear plant meltdown would cause radiation to be released and would make the entire state uninhabitable for centuries and cause acute radiation poisoning. Radioactive effluents could cause cancer, leukemia, and severe birth defects in infants. Furthermore, the nuclear power plant would produce long-lived, high-level radioactive waste that would not decay for thousands of years. Dickerson decided to get involved and prevent the building of the Black Fox Power Plant. Her first public appearance was at the Claremore city council, where she warned officials of the dangers of nuclear power and delayed the council’s approval of the plant. She started to become a public figure, and in a radio interview with Hugh Garnett on KWHW in Altus, she announced the formation of a Citizens’ Action Group inspired by Ralph Nader’s campaign against nuclear power. She would later rename her group Citizens’ Action for Safe Energy (CASE), an organization dedicated to fighting nuclear power and promoting clean, safe energy. She worked with Ilene Younhein of Oklahoma City and co-chair of CASE. CASE opposed Black Fox, based not only on the risks of accidents and radiation, but also on the fact that nuclear power would not be affordable or necessary for the community. Therefore consumers were only to be underwriting large profits for PSO and water resources would be at risk with the power plant. They also claimed that disposal issues hadn’t been solved and the company had not explored passive alternative energy sources like wind and solar. CASE’s strategy was to stall the progress of the hearings and licensing process, as well as to postpone the issuance of a construction permit. Eventually, the PSO would have to ask for a rate increase Construction-Work-In-Progress (CWIP). When a nuclear power plant was planned, the company would ask the state utility commission to grant a rate increase so that ratepayers would have to start paying for the building of the plant. At that point the protesters would be able to go to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission hearing and prove that electricity from Black Fox would be too expensive for people to pay. 1976 was the year of the first public hearings. The hearings usually lasted about two days and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) warned CASE that the law didn’t allow interveners to stop a nuclear power plant. Despite this, Dickerson and CASE paid for attorneys and expert witnesses so that they were able to extend the hearing from being less than a week to eighteen months. Attorneys Tom Dalton, Joe Farris, and Louis Bulloc worked with CASE in many of their legal battles. The Dickerson family supported many of the legal expenses and Carrie Barefoot Dickerson began to make quilts to sell in support of the cause. Eventually Dickerson and a group of women were able to make $60,000 from the sale of quilts in support of the cause. Dickerson also began to travel around Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri to educate people about Black Fox by organizing conferences, seminars, and rallies, as well as hosting screenings of “What’s Wrong with America’s Reactors?” To continue to finance her campaign, she sold her family farm as well as the nursing home she ran. When the first hearing on environmental and site suitability ended, the government granted a Limited Work Authorization (LWA) in the summer of 1978, which allowed for the clearing of trees and building road on the site. The next hearing on health and safety was a success for CASE because the group was able to demand an additional hearing on the G.E. Reed Report, an in-house study done by G.E. that had been kept secret and found numerous problems with the reactors. By 1979, Dickerson’s funds were depleted and she mortgaged her land to continue the campaign. The anti-nuclear movement was now a national issue that gained widespread attention, especially when on March 28, 1979, a partial meltdown occurred at the Three Mile Island Power Plant in Pennsylvania and a temporary moratorium was placed on nuclear power plant licensing. The Sunbelt Alliance, a group involved in other anti-nuclear campaigns, became involved in the fall of 1978 when it decided to plan a large-scale protest at the site of the Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant. The group was composed of a loosely knit collection of smaller affinity groups supporting the Alliance. These groups were diverse and included students from the University of Tulsa as well as professors, musicians, artists, Native American groups, and professionals. The Alliance was based on theories of nonviolent civil disobedience and the members all had to participate in a seven-hour training session before becoming involved with the direct action. All members of the affinity groups had to pledge to cause no damage or destruction to PSO property, not run, not bring dogs, not use drugs or alcohol, not use weapons, not break police lines, and not engage in verbal abuse. Bolstered by the outrage generated by the accident at Three Mile Island, the Sunbelt Alliance and other groups engaged in a nonviolent occupation of Black Fox on June 2, 1979, to coincide with the International Days of Protest. The protest was planned by Kyle Cline, Kathryn Greene, and Elizabeth Barlow and involved about 500 people camping out in the nearby State Park to prevent further construction of the nuclear reactor. The protesters were quickly arrested, including many reporters attempting to document the protest. This nonviolent action was set up primarily to draw attention to the cause and pique public interest while Dickerson and her group CASE continued to work through legal channels to stall any building. In 1980 Dickerson received the Community of John the 23rd award for her peaceful campaign against the power plant. By late 1980, PSO was forced to ask the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) for a rate increase. In 1981, the OCC held hearings on the high electric rates that consumers would have to pay if Black Fox was built. After listening to testimonies from Dickerson and others, the OCC found that Black Fox was no longer economically viable and consumers should not have to pay for the huge construction costs. On February 16, 1982, PSO officially canceled the Black Fox project due to the opposition from the community, cost overruns, and the huge rate increase that would hurt customers. The Sunbelt Alliance dissolved after the success at Black Fox in 1982, citing that the closing of Black Fox was the group’s major goal and purpose. No reactor ordered since 1973, the beginning of this campaign, has been completed in the United States. It is estimated that about $550,000 was spent in the campaign against Black Fox, with approximately $200,000 coming from Dickerson. Carrie Barefoot Dickerson would go on to found the Carrie Dickerson Foundation to educate civilians about the dangers of nuclear energy. She also wrote a book about her experience called Aunt Carrie’s War Against Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant. Anti-nuclear protests in the United States. This is a list of notable anti-nuclear protests in the United States . Many anti-nuclear campaigns captured national public attention in the 1970s and 1980s, including those at Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant, Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and those following the 1979 Three Mile Island accident. [1] The largest anti-nuclear demonstration to date was held in New York City on September 23, 1979 when almost 200,000 people attended. The New York rally was held in conjunction with a series of nightly “No Nukes” concerts given at Madison Square Garden from September 19 through 23. Anti-nuclear protests preceded the shutdown of the Shoreham, Yankee Rowe, Millstone I, Rancho Seco, Maine Yankee, and about a dozen other nuclear power plants. [2] Protests in recent years have focused mainly on Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Naval Base Kitsap, Nevada Test Site and several proposed nuclear reactors. Contents. Bodega Bay. Pacific Gas & Electric planned to build the first commercially viable nuclear power plant in the USA at Bodega Bay, a fishing village fifty miles north of San Francisco. The proposal was controversial and conflict with local citizens began in 1958. [3] In 1963 there was a large demonstration at the site of the proposed Bodega Bay Nuclear Power Plant. [4] The conflict ended in 1964, with the forced abandonment of plans for the power plant. Attempts to build a nuclear power plant in Malibu were similar to those at Bodega Bay and were also abandoned. [3] Montague Nuclear Power Plant. On 22 February 1974, Washington's Birthday, organic farmer Sam Lovejoy took a crowbar to the weather-monitoring tower which had been erected at the Montague Nuclear Power Plant site. Lovejoy felled 349 feet of the 550 foot tower and then took himself to the local police station, where he presented a statement in which he took full responsibility for the action. Lovejoy's action galvanized local public opinion against the plant. [5] [6] The Montague nuclear power plant proposal was canceled in 1980, [7] after $29 million was spent on the project. [5] Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant. Seabrook power plant was proposed as a twin-reactor plant in 1972, at an estimated cost of $973 million. When it finally won a commercial license in March 1990, it was a single reactor which cost $6.5 billion. [8] Over a period of thirteen years, more than 4,000 citizens committed nonviolent civil disobedience at Seabrook: [9] August 1, 1976: 200 residents rallied at the future Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant site in New Hampshire, and 18 were arrested for criminal trespass. [9] August 22, 1976: 188 activists from New England were arrested at the Seabrook site. [9][10] May 2, 1977: 1,414 protesters were arrested at Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant. [11][2][12] The protesters who were arrested were expected to be "released on their own recognizance", but this did not happen. Instead, they were charged with criminal trespass and asked to post bail ranging from $100 to $500. They refused and were then held in five national guard armories for 12 days. The Seabrook conflict, and role of New Hampshire Governor Meldrim Thomson, received much national media coverage. [13] May 13, 1977: 550 protestors were freed after being detained for thirteen days. [14] June 1978: some 12,000 people attended a protest at Seabrook. [2][12] May 25-27 1980: Police use tear gas, riot sticks and dogs to drive 2,000 demonstrators away from the Seabrook site. [15] May 24, 1986: 74 anti-nuclear demonstrators were arrested in protests. [16][17] October 17, 1988: 84 people were arrested at the Seabrook plant. [18] June 5, 1989: hundreds of demonstrators protested against the plant's first low-power testing, and the police arrested 627 people for trespassing; two state legislators, one from Massachusetts and one from New Hampshire, protested. [19][9] Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. August 6, 1977: The Abalone Alliance held the first blockade at Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California, and 47 people were arrested. [20] August 1978: almost 500 people were arrested for protesting at Diablo Canyon. [20] April 8, 1979: 30,000 people marched in San Francisco to support shutting down the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. [21] June 30, 1979: about 40,000 people attended a protest rally at Diablo Canyon. [22] September 1981: more than 900 protesters were arrested at Diablo Canyon. [23][20] May 1984: about 130 demonstrators showed up for start-up day at Diablo Canyon, and five were arrested. [24] Three Mile Island accident. Even before the Three Mile Island accident, the nuclear industry was facing considerable adverse public opinion. A "sizeable and tenacious opposition movement had caused significant delays" in the licensing and construction of new power plants in the United States. The TMI accident stimulated a rise in anti-nuclear sentiment. [25] The American public were concerned about the release of radioactive gas from the Three Mile Island accident and many mass demonstrations took place across the country in the following months. The largest one was held in New York City in September 1979 and involved two hundred thousand people; speeches were given by Jane Fonda and Ralph Nader. [26] [27] [28] The New York rally was held in conjunction with a series of nightly “No Nukes” concerts given at Madison Square Garden from September 19 through 23 by Musicians United for Safe Energy. In the previous May, an estimated 65,000 people, including the Governor of California, attended a march and rally against nuclear power in Washington, D.C. [21] [27] Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant. June 2, 1979: about 500 people were arrested for protesting about construction of the Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant in Oklahoma. [12][29] February 1982: following years of legal action and protests, it was announced that the plant would not be built. [30][31] Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant. August 12, 1978: Forty protesters are arrested at the first anti-Shoreham demonstration. [32][33] June 3, 1979: following the Three Mile Island accident, some 15,000 people attended a rally organized by the Shad Alliance and about 600 were arrested at Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant in New York. [34][35][32] 1989: after many years of protests, the completed Shoreham plant was closed without generating any commercial electrical power. [34][36] Rocky Flats Plant. April 28, 1979: 15,000 people demonstrated against the Rocky Flats Nuclear Processing Plant in Colorado, making the link between nuclear power and nuclear weaponry. [37][38] October 15, 1983: Large demonstration at Rocky Flats. [39][40] August, 1989: An estimated 3,500 people turned out for a demonstration at Rocky Flats. [40] Rancho Seco Nuclear Power Plant. In 1979, Abalone Alliance members held a 38-day sit-in in the Californian Governor Jerry Brown's office to protest continued operation of Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station, which was a duplicate of the Three Mile Island facility. [41] In 1989, Sacremento voters voted to shut down the Rancho Seco power plant. [42] Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Plant. Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Plant, shut down in 1992, had years of protests by environmentalists. [43] Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. In the 1970s and 1980s there were many protests at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant which attempted to block access to the plant. [44] September 23, 1979: some 167 protesters were arrested at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. [12] January 2006: 100 anti-nuclear supporters demonstrated at the front door of Entergy Nuclear, and eleven people were arrested for trespassing. [45][46] October 2006: 26 people were arrested outside the Brattleboro offices of owner Entergy Nuclear; the demonstration drew about 200 people. [47][48] April 27, 2007: Seven anti-nuclear activists were arrested after chaining themselves to a fence at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The protesters, who call themselves the "Raging Grannies", wanted the plant shut down and have engaged in dozens of similar actions since December 2005. [49] November 2008: About 15 people held a rowdy protest against Vermont Yankee in the offices of the Public Service Board that regulates utilities. [50][51] April 2009: A rally and two full-page advertisements in The Burlington Free Press , which mocked the Vermont Yankee Power Plant, were paid for by a newly formed group, The Clean Green Vermont Alliance. [52] April 2009: About 150 activists marched from Montpelier's City Hall to the State House to urge lawmakers to back development of clean energy sources such as wind power and solar power; the marchers had gathered 12,000 signatures in support of closing Vermont Yankee. [53][54] September 2009: Frances Crowe and three other women were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. [55] January 2010: A coalition of anti-nuclear activists participated in a 126-mile walk from Brattleboro to Montpelier in an effort to block the re-licensing of Vermont Yankee. About 175 people took part in the March, some joining for the day and some for longer stretches. [56] San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. June 22, 1980: about 15,000 people attended a protest near San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California. [12] Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament. In 1986, hundreds of people walked from Los Angeles to Washington DC in what is referred to as the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament. The march took nine months to traverse Template:Convert, advancing approximately fifteen miles per day. [57] Naval Base Kitsap. There have been anti-nuclear protests at Naval Base Kitsap for many years. [58] Recent protests include: January 19, 2008: Seventeen people protesting about nuclear weapons at Naval Base Kitsap at Bangor in honor of Martin Luther King. Jr. were detained or arrested. All were released shortly afterward. [59] May 30, 2008: Twelve people were arrested at an anti-nuclear weapon demonstration at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor — five of them for walking on a sidewalk closed to pedestrian traffic. [60] Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. June 22, 1982: More than 1,300 anti-nuclear protesters were arrested in a nonviolent demonstration. [61] There is an annual protest against U.S. nuclear weapons research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. In the 2007 protest, 64 people were arrested. [62] More than 80 people were arrested in March 2008 while protesting at the gates of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. [63] Nevada Test Site. From 1986 through 1994, two years after the United States put a hold on full-scale nuclear weapons testing, 536 demonstrations were held at the Nevada Test Site involving 37,488 participants and 15,740 arrests, according to government records. [64] These are just a few details: