Clamshell Alliance
The Clamshell Alliance is an anti-nuclear organization founded in 1976 to oppose the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant in the U.S. state of New Hampshire.
The group was co-founded by Paul Gunter, Howie Hawkins, Howard Morland, Harvey Wasserman, Guy Chichester, Robert "Renny" Cushing, Jeff Brummer, Anna Gyorgy, Kristie Conrad, Kate Walker, Robin Read, and other activists in 1976.
The Granite State Alliance, a social-change organization, had launched PEP, the People's Energy Project, several years earlier, in opposition to the proposed Seabrook nuclear power plant.
[2] In July 1976 the Clamshell Alliance adopted a Declaration of Nuclear Resistance as a guiding set of principles in a meeting of 60-75 activists.
On August 1, 1976, 18 New Hampshire residents were arrested for criminal trespass and disorderly conduct in Clamshell's first civil disobedience action on the Seabrook site.
[2] Richard Asinof wrote: In later years, New Hampshire authorities minimized the impact of mass civil disobedience at the Seabrook plant by treating activist trespass as a violation, and allowing community service in lieu of fines.
Clamshell Alliance members attempted to have their actions taken more seriously by the courts, and began staging sit-ins of the office of Republican Governor Judd Gregg.
While this action resulted in jail time for criminal trespass, the local courts would not rule on the question of "competing harms" or the "Right of Revolution" granted by the New Hampshire Constitution.
Activist Guy Chichester eventually sawed down a Seabrook Station emergency warning siren pole, resulting in charges of "criminal mischief", a Class B felony.
[3] In 1978 the Clamshell Alliance split after the Coordinating Committee (CC) agreed to call off a large disobedience planned at the power plant site in June.
But the political consequences within Clamshell led to a split in the Alliance and the eventual formation of the Coalition for Direct action at Seabrook (CDAS).
But the Rath proposal helped exacerbate tensions within the Alliance among those calling for more radical action, those supporting more classic civil disobedience, and those who were beginning to question the usefulness of large civil disobedience actions in the Seacoast; as well as tensions between local Seacoast residents and supporters, who were providing land for thousands of Clams to camp and stage the occupation, and Clams living far away, many of whom scheduled vacations for a non-violent occupation and likely time in custody.
The political tension within Clamshell, combined with pressure from authorities on locals, a media frenzy with anticipatory headlines such as "Kent State at Seabrook?
The original intent was for a "Clamtrack" journey by train of thousands of Clams to blockade the NRC that would license the Seabrook plant.
Seabrook construction had been halted before by an NRC Board meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire, in a building surrounded by perhaps two thousand Clams.
[citation needed] The following year, several hundred Clams attempted to block the delivery of the first reactor containment vessel to the site, but police kept the roads clear.
Numerous actions took place at the New Hampshire State House with sit-ins at the Governor's office to oppose Seabrook licensing.
Governor Hugh J. Gallen had signed legislation prohibiting the utility from billing consumers for the costs of construction work in progress (CWIP), and the Three Mile Island accident had increased awareness and added the requirement for an evacuation plan prior to commissioning.
