University of Dayton eCommons Philosophy Faculty Publications Department of Philosophy 2010 Antinuclear Power Protests in the United States Danielle Poe University of Dayton, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.udayton.edu/phl_fac_pub Part of the History of Philosophy Commons eCommons Citation Poe, Danielle, "Antinuclear Power Protests in the United States" (2010). Philosophy Faculty Publications. 11. https://ecommons.udayton.edu/phl_fac_pub/11 This Encyclopedia Entry is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Philosophy at eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Philosophy Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. ANTINUCLEAR POWER PROTESTS 67 proposals were printed and distributed. In 1842 William on conferences, arbitration, education, and negotia­ Jay (1769-1853) wrote a book in which he argued for tions; yet they also raised issues of arms, conscription, international arbitration as a way for civilized countries and of militarism in culture; including military training, to solve conflicts and end wars. The next year he sent a and even children's war toys and books. request to forty-five governments and asked them to [See also Anarchist Theory and Peace; Pacifism before work for the establishment of bodies of international 1901; Socialist Approaches to War and Peace; and arbitration. This same year the first international con­ Tolstoy, Leo.] ference for world peace was held in London with only Anglo-Saxon participants. The focus was on educating BIBLIOGRAPHY young people about the evils of war. Brock, Peter. Radical Pacifists in Antebellum America. In Germany, Franz Wirth (1826-1897) started the Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968. Frankfurter Friedensverein, with more than fifty local Ceadel, Martin. The Origins ofWar Prevention: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1730- 1854. Oxford branches; the pacifist group, Gesellschaft fur and New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Friedensfreunde, was created in 1869. The Austrian, Cole, George Douglas Howard. A History of Socialist Thought. Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914), became a leading Vol. 2: Socialist Thought, Marxism and Anarchism, 1850- figure in the peace movement with the publication of 1890 and Vol. 3: The Second International, 1889- 1914. her novel, Die Waffen Nieder! (Lay Down Your Arm.sf) in London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. 1889. She founded an Austrian pacifist organization in Fogelstri:im, Pers Anders. Kampen for Fred. Berdttelsen om en okand Folkrorelse . [The struggle for peace: The story about a 1891 and gained world renown as editor of the interna­ Swedish popular movement]. Stockholm: Svenska Freds­ tional pacifist journal Die Waffen Nieder!, named after och Skiljedomsforeningen, 1983. her book. The journal was published from 1892 to 1899 Friedrich, Ernst. War Against War. London: Journeyman Press and had a substantial impact on the European peace Ltd., 1987. movement. She also spoke at large public gatherings Tolstoy, Leo. Writings on Civil Disobedience and Nonviolence . Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1987. against war preparations. J0RGEN JOHANSEN In Scandinavia, the Danish Justice Minister, Malte Bruun Nyegaard (1789-1877) argued strongly against universal conscription and the nsmg military ANTINUCLEAR POWER PROTESTS IN THE expenditure. The first Nordic organization to oppose UNITED STATES. The history of nuclear power in wars and promote peace was founded after Denmark the United States began with the top-secret lost Schleswig-Holstein to Prussia in the war that Manhattan Project (1942-1946), in which the first ended in 1864. It was first named the Association for atomic bomb was produced and used in 1945 against Danish Neutrality, but later changed its name to the Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. According to the Danish Peace Union. Viggo Hizirup (1841-1902) was an American Nuclear Society, a nuclear power industry important liberal anti-militarist who, in the public association, the first U.S. city to use nuclear power for debate, argued strongly against militarism and fortifica­ electricity was Arco, Idaho, in 1955. As of 2007, the tion of the capital. Both in Denmark and Norway many United States had 104 operational nuclear power reac­ escaped from military service by emigrating to the tors, one nuclear power reactor under construction, United States, Canada, and Australia. and twenty-eight closed nuclear power reactors. In Sweden, J.B. Westenius argued so strongly in favor Between 1945, when the world became aware of the of disarmament that he had to resign as editor of the destructive power of atomic energy, and today, many newspaper Malmo Handels- og Sjofarts-Tidning. people have associated nuclear power with nuclear On 24 February 1883 the Swedish Peace and Arbitration weapons and consider the abolition of nuclear power Society (SPAS) was established in Stockholm. It a part of the larger project of ending nuclear prolifera­ remains the oldest traditional peace organization still tion and disassembling the current stores of nuclear working against militarism, and played a key role in weapons. Those who are against nuclear power cite the prevention of war against secessionist Norw~y. two major reasons for their opposition: expense, and While the peace societies can be seen, mainly, as danger for humans and the larger environment. reactions to the wars of the century, they also foresha­ Proponents of nuclear power argue that nuclear dowed later peace organizations; the focus was mainly power is more economical than traditional melhods 68 ANTINUCLEAR POWER PROTESTS of producing electricity; opponents point out that the begins when the uranium is mined, conlinues during the cost of nuclear power has to be figured by considering production of electricity, and further continues when Lhe expense of building the plant, storing wasle, and waste from the process must be stored. The American decommissioning nuclear reactors, and their propo­ Nuclear Society admits on its Web site that nuclear nenls only state the inilial construction cosl. power plants produce a measurable increase in radia­ Opponents also argue that the cost of building tion around the power plant, but they argue that renewable energy sources (such as a windmill farm) is evidence of adverse health effects for exposure to low­ significantly lower than building a nuclear reactor. level radiation does not exist.(American Nuclear Society 2001). Opponents of nuclear power a sert that when The Debate between Proponents and human and environmental heallh is at stake, the burden Opponents of Nuclear Power of proof oughl Lo be on Lhe nuclear industry rather than The arguments in favor of using nuclear power to pro­ on those exposed to radiaLion. The danger of radiation duce electricity are that it is less expensive than other comes from the planned lifecycle of a power plant, but means of producing electricity and, because the also from accidents within the plant and the possibility technology is clean and sustainable, it is good for the of deliberate targeting by enemies. Directly linked to environment. According to the American Nuclear opponents' concerns about the dangers of radiation, Society, the current cost to operate nuclear power plants they point out the close link between nuclear power is about the same as operating fossil-fuel plants to pro­ and nuclear weapons. Once a country or group ha the duce electricity. Further, they argue that if they were technology to produce nuclear energy, the technology to allowed to reuse th e byproducts from nuclear power produce nuclear weapons is a short step, and indeed this plants, operation of these plants would be so cost­ step has sometimes been taken. effective that uranium could be mined from the oceans. The industry's arguments for th e environmental advan­ Antinuclear Protests tages of nuclear power are that the amount of damage The concerns about nuclear power date back to the first caused by mining uranium is offset by the electricity use of nuclear weapons in 1945. The anti-nuclear move­ produced (once again, the compaiison is to producing ment gained prominence in the 1970s and helped to fossil f-t.1el), nuclear power plants do not produce any close nuclear power plant as well as to curtail new sulfur or carbon-dioxide emissions, and nuclear power nuclear power plant construction from the 1970 into plants are self-contained and have minimal impact on the early twenly-first century. The most influential anti­ the local environment (as compared Lo hydroelectric nuclear protest happened in Seabrook, New Hampshire / power). One of the most surprising advocates of nuclear in April 1977. In 1976, the small town of Seabrook, New power is Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace. Hampshire was the proposed site of a nuclear power Moore argues that nuclear power is the key to providing facility. The people of the town voted against this facility sufficient electricity, minimizing environmental harm, on three separate occasions to no avail. In order to and stopping global warming. protect their town against Lhis power plant, the people Opponents of nuclear power challenge each of the formed the Clamshell Alliance, which proceeded to train arguments offered in favor of it. First, the cost of produc­ people in nonviolent tactics in order to prote t against ing nuclear fuel has to consider the entire life cycle of a the construction of a