Rose Gaffney (1895–1974) was an environmental activist known for fighting the construction of the Bodega Bay Nuclear Power Plant in Sonoma County, California.
[4] Her husband died in 1941, leaving Gaffney to inherit property on Bodega Head that her father in-law purchased in 1863.
[5] In 1958, when Gaffney was 66, PG&E proposed building a nuclear power plant on the tip of Bodega Head, virtually on top of the San Andreas Fault.
[3] Gaffney responded by inviting geologists, including Dr. Pierre St. Amand, who had studied the effects of the 1960 Valdivia earthquake in Chile,[6] at 9.4-9.6 on the moment magnitude scale, the largest ever recorded.
[2][5] Although, according to Gaffney, other property owners in the area sold to PG&E "without hesitation," she refused to sell to the utility.
[4] Thomas Wellock proposes that the start of the anti-nuclear movement began with the dispute over Bodega Bay.