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Lightstar Blues II: The Blockade

Seabrook, New Hampshire   March 1979

On March 9. 1979 the first Reactor Pressure Vessel for the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant arrived in New Hampshire. After months of preparing and organizing for a sea blockade for the Vessel that was being stored at a New England Power Company in Somerset, Massachusetts, the nuclear contractors surprised us by shopping a different Reactor Vessel overland from Nashville, Tennessee.

On short notice I activated  the Clamshell Alliance phone tree and spent hours in the Fall River Office calling activists to converge on Seabrook in a last ditch attempt  to block the truck carrying the 427 ton heart if the nuclear beast.   Rachel had traveled to the Seabrook Site with our friends Ron & Sue Saint Martin, and I waited for word from the Portsmouth Clamshell on what to next. Finally I got the go ahead to come to Seabrook. The Fall River Safe Energy Alliance affinity group  and my hometown group the North Shore Alternative Energy Coalition were already in Seabrook, waiting for the showdown. I took a bus to Boston and let up with “The Chain Gang”, an affinity group that planned to meet the Trabosssa Transporter carrying the Vessel at the bridge entering Seabrook from Salisbury. We had a crate full of motorcycle chains and the plan was to block the truck by chaining ourselves together across the bridge.

That night we huddled together in the Salisbury woods, waiting for the signal that the transporter was on the move. In those days before cellphones and email this communication relies on fast cars, walkie talkie, and prayer. In the murky dawn chaos it was clear that our brilliant plan was nothing more than a desperate Hail Mary Pass that had already been anticipated. The Trabossa with its oversized load crossed the Bridge before we could get there. We scrambled with our chains to form a line across the road only to have New Hampshire State Troopers equipped with wire cutters unlink our chains and push us to the side. Dozens of demonstrators sat in the road blocking the entrance gate to the nuclear construction site. I looked across and shuddered at the site if how much had been built since the last time we had been there. A young blind woman named Nelia Sargent hooked her walking cane to the front of the Trabossa Transporter. She was the first of 179 to be arrested.

I would be the last one arrested that morning. As the State Police dragged away the last few demonstrators who were sitting in the road, I handed my motorcycle chains to Phil Oulette and said, “I’ll see you in a little while “. I ran past a handful of state troopers and spit on the truck. Officer Barrett of New Hampshire’s finest grabbed me from behind howling “You’re under  arrest!” in my ear. I was pushed against a police cruiser and handcuffed.  My arms were twisted, Barrett was scowling and had his fist clenched when … (Deus Ex Machina) tv news cameras arrived. Suddenly he was acting a lot more mellow.  I was gently escorted to the back of the cruiser. As it left the site I could see Phil with Marcia Hart in the crowd waving. I could hear Phil calling “We love you brother!”

I was taken to the Hampton County Jail. I was in a cell with 40 guys across from a cell that had I think 50 or 60 women. The inadequate toilet facilities  soon became a problem. Some of the women started  to chant “The smell is making us sick!” We in the men’s cell started to chant in solidarity “The smell is making them  sick!” It got pretty loud in that jailhouse that afternoon. Less than six hours after Officer Barrett handcuffed me we were released on personal recognizance. Two years before I had spent 9 days in jail after being arrested in Seabrook. Bail was $100 and I didn’t have it. I guess mass production  makes things cheaper.

Rachel was waiting outside, radiant as the sun. We stopped in an Italian restaurant and ordered Eggplant Parmesan. We had been apart for three days and wanted to catch up on lost time while we waited  for our food. The manager threatened to kick us out, displeased by our public display of affection. “That’s amore”. I sought revenge by liberating their  decorative bathroom curtains. We headed to Gloucester to drop in on my mom, arriving minutes after she saw me being arrested on the Six O’Clock News.

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Written by PaulPallazola

3 Comments

  1. Sorry you didn’t stop the nuclear plant being built. New Zealanders went Nuclear free and protested against any nuclear ships. Unfortunately as much we don’t want nuclear. The powers that be do exactly what they please
    While some want to live in peace the sad reality is that not all want peace unless it is on their terms.

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