Activists converged on the Vermont Yankee reactor in Vernon, VT on Thursday, August 26 for a disciplined, nonviolent protest to demand the shutdown of the dangerous and uneconomical reactor.
At least 21 of the participants risked arrest and sat down both at the road into Vermont Yankee and at the gate. Protestors, cheered on and supported by a crowd of over 100 people, faced down Yankee's corporate executives and held a New Orleans style funeral on Vermont Yankee's property.
State and local Police, who had been preparing for months to arrest protestors at Vermont Yankee's behest, were called off in mid afternoon when Yankee threw in the towel and acquiesced to protestors blocking the reactor gates and dancing on the front lawn. Intimidated by the prospect of a public trial, Yankee caved in and allowed the demonstrators to celebrate the industry's death on their own doorstep. Vermont Yankee's spin was that it cancelled the arrests because, as a good corporate citizen, it wanted to "save the taxpayers money." In fact, VY was desperate to avoid the public scrutiny that would be precipitated by the arrests.
The protestors held a New Orleans "funeral" for the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corporation and the nuclear industry. Included in the funeral procession were cooling-tower shaped tombstones for each of the Northeast nuclear reactors, a 24 foot coffin carried by 14 pallbearers wearing skeleton masks and rad suits and three multi-colored birds with an 18 foot wing span.
Participants announced a Declaration of Nuclear Independence and the establishment of a nuclear free Northeast region. Vermont Yankee and the industry were offered opportunities to repent for their abuses and usurpations. No repentance from the industry was forthcoming and the protestors then buried Vermont Yankee and the industry and danced on their grave.
"We came today to bury Vermont Yankee. This misguided experiment with nuclear power has failed the people it was intended to serve. Vermont Yankee wouldn't arrest us because they didn't want the truth about their mismanagement and chronic safety problems to come out. The last thing they want is for our expert witnesses to testify in a formal trial. The people of this community know we can't afford it economically nor should we have to continue to risk our health and safety," said Derrik Jordan, a Vermont member of CAN.