List of anti-nuclear protests in the United States

There were many anti-nuclear protests in the United States which captured national public attention during the 1970s and 1980s. These included the well-known Clamshell Alliance

Clamshell Alliance

The Clamshell Alliance is an anti-nuclear organization co-founded by Paul Gunter, Howie Hawkins, Harvey Wasserman, Guy Chichester and other activists in 1976. The alliance's coalescence began in 1975 as New England activists and organizations began to respond to U.S...

protests at Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant

Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant

The Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, more commonly known as Seabrook Station, is a nuclear power plant located in Seabrook, New Hampshire, approximately north of Boston and south of Portsmouth. Two units were planned, but the second unit was never completed due to construction delays, cost overruns...

and the Abalone Alliance

Abalone alliance

The Abalone Alliance was a nonviolent civil disobedience group formed to shut down the Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Diablo Canyon Power Plant near San Luis Obispo on the central California coast in the United States...

protests at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, where thousands of protesters were arrested. Other large protests followed the 1979 Three Mile Island accident

Three Mile Island accident

The Three Mile Island accident was a core meltdown in Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979....

.

A large anti-nuclear

Anti-nuclear

The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes the use of nuclear technologies. Many direct action groups, environmental groups, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, national, and international level...

demonstration was held in May 1979 in Washington D.C., when 65,000 people including the Governor of California, attended a march and rally against nuclear power

Nuclear power

Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...

. In New York City on September 23, 1979, almost 200,000 people attended a protest against nuclear power. Anti-nuclear power protests preceded the shutdown of the Shoreham

Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant

The Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant was a completed General Electric nuclear boiling water reactor located adjacent to the Wading River in East Shoreham, New York...

, Yankee Rowe, Millstone I

Millstone Nuclear Power Plant

The Millstone Nuclear Power Station is the only nuclear power generation site in Connecticut. It is located at a former quarry in Waterford...

, Rancho Seco

Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station

The Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station is a decommissioned nuclear power plant built by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District in Herald, California.-History:...

, Maine Yankee, and about a dozen other nuclear power plants.

On June 12, 1982, one million people demonstrated in New York City's Central Park

Central Park

Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...

against nuclear weapons and for an end to the cold war

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

arms race

Arms race

The term arms race, in its original usage, describes a competition between two or more parties for the best armed forces. Each party competes to produce larger numbers of weapons, greater armies, or superior military technology in a technological escalation...

. It was the largest anti-nuclear protest

Demonstration (people)

A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...

and the largest political demonstration in American history. International Day of Nuclear Disarmament protests were held on June 20, 1983 at 50 sites across the United States.
In 1986, hundreds of people walked from Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

to Washington DC in the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament

Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament

The Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, Inc. was a cross-country event in 1986 aimed at raising awareness to the growing danger of nuclear proliferation and to advocate for complete, verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons from the earth...

. There were many Nevada Desert Experience

Nevada Desert Experience

The Nevada Desert Experience is a name for the movement to stop U.S. nuclear weapons testing that came into use in the middle 1980s. It is also the name of a particular anti-nuclear organization which continues to create public events to question the morality and intelligence of the U.S. nuclear...

protests and peace camps at the Nevada Test Site

Nevada Test Site

The Nevada National Security Site , previously the Nevada Test Site , is a United States Department of Energy reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about northwest of the city of Las Vegas...

during the 1980s and 1990s.

On May 1, 2005, 40,000 anti-nuclear/anti-war protesters marched past the United Nations in New York, 60 years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...

. This was the largest anti-nuclear rally in the U.S. for several decades. In 2008, 2009, and 2010, there have been protests about, and campaigns against, several new nuclear reactor proposals in the United States.

Background

The anti-nuclear movement in the United States

Anti-nuclear movement in the United States

The anti-nuclear movement in the United States consists of more than 80 anti-nuclear groups which have acted to oppose nuclear power or nuclear weapons, or both, in the United States. These groups include the Abalone Alliance, Clamshell Alliance, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research,...

has used a variety of protest

Protest

A protest is an expression of objection, by words or by actions, to particular events, policies or situations. Protests can take many different forms, from individual statements to mass demonstrations...

tactics, particularly illegal occupations of nuclear plant sites, to present its case to the public:

Arising from the failure of established environmental organizations and citizen groups to have the courts and regulatory agencies end the construction and operation of atomic plants, the antinuclear movement has resorted to a variety of protest tactics, particularly illegal occupations of plant sites, to take its case to the public. By all accounts it has helped to make nuclear power an issue of local and national concern.

Bodega Bay

Pacific Gas & Electric planned to build the first commercially viable nuclear power plant

Nuclear power plant

A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...

in the USA at Bodega Bay

Bodega Bay

Bodega Bay is a shallow, rocky inlet of the Pacific Ocean on the coast of northern California in the United States. It is approximately across and is located approximately northwest of San Francisco and west of Santa Rosa...

, a fishing village fifty miles north of San Francisco. The proposal was controversial and conflict with local citizens began in 1958. In 1963 there was a large demonstration at the site of the proposed Bodega Bay Nuclear Power Plant

Bodega Bay Nuclear Power Plant

The Bodega Bay Nuclear Power Plant was proposed but never built.Pacific Gas & Electric planned to build the first commercially viable nuclear power plant in the USA at Bodega Bay, California, a fishing village fifty miles north of San Francisco...

. The conflict ended in 1964, with the forced abandonment of plans for the power plant. Attempts to build a nuclear power plant in Malibu were similar to those at Bodega Bay and were also abandoned.

Women Strike for Peace

On November 1, 1961, at the height of the Cold War

Cold War

, about 50,000 women brought together by Women Strike for Peace

Women Strike for Peace

Women Strike for Peace is a United States women's peace activist group.-History:Women Strike for Peace was founded by Bella Abzug and Dagmar Wilson in 1961, and was initially part of the movement for a ban on nuclear testing and to end the Vietnam war, first demanding a negotiated settlement,...

marched in 60 cities in the United States to demonstrate against nuclear weapons. It was the largest national women's peace protest of the 20th century. About 1,500 women led by Dagmar Wilson gathered at the foot of the Washington Monument

Washington Monument

The Washington Monument is an obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first U.S. president, General George Washington...

and President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

watched from a window at the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

. The protest helped "push the United States and the Soviet Union into signing a nuclear test-ban treaty two years later".

Montague Nuclear Power Plant

On 22 February 1974, Washington's Birthday, organic farmer Sam Lovejoy took a crowbar to the weather-monitoring tower which had been erected at the Montague Nuclear Power Plant

Montague Nuclear Power Plant

The Montague Nuclear Power Plant was to consist of two 1,150-megawatt nuclear reactors to be located in Montague, Massachusetts. The project was proposed in 1973 and canceled in 1980, after $29 million was spent on the project....

site. Lovejoy felled 349 feet of the 550 foot tower and then took himself to the local police station, where he presented a statement in which he took full responsibility for the action. Lovejoy's action galvanized local public opinion against the plant. The Montague nuclear power plant proposal was canceled in 1980, after $29 million was spent on the project.

Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant

Seabrook power plant was proposed as a twin-reactor plant in 1972, at an estimated cost of $973 million. When it finally won a commercial license in March 1990, it was a single reactor which cost $6.5 billion. Over a period of thirteen years more than 4,000 citizens, many associated with the Clamshell Alliance

Clamshell Alliance

anti-nuclear group, committed non-violent civil disobedience at Seabrook:

August 1, 1976: 200 residents rallied at the future Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant
Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant
The Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, more commonly known as Seabrook Station, is a nuclear power plant located in Seabrook, New Hampshire, approximately north of Boston and south of Portsmouth. Two units were planned, but the second unit was never completed due to construction delays, cost overruns...

site in New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

, and 18 were arrested for criminal trespass.
August 22, 1976: 188 activists from New England were arrested at the Seabrook site.
May 2, 1977: 1,414 protesters were arrested at Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant. The protesters who were arrested were expected to be "released on their own recognizance", but this did not happen. Instead, they were charged with criminal trespass and asked to post bail ranging from $100 to $500. They refused and were then held in five national guard armories for 12 days. The Seabrook conflict, and role of New Hampshire Governor Meldrim Thomson, received much national media coverage.

May 13, 1977: 550 protestors were freed after being detained for thirteen days.
June 1978: some 12,000 people attended a protest at Seabrook.
May 25–27, 1980: Police use tear gas, riot sticks and dogs to drive 2,000 demonstrators away from the Seabrook site.
May 24, 1986: 74 anti-nuclear demonstrators were arrested in protests.
October 17, 1988: 84 people were arrested at the Seabrook plant.
June 5, 1989: hundreds of demonstrators protested against the plant's first low-power testing, and the police arrested 627 people for trespassing; two state legislators, one from Massachusetts and one from New Hampshire, protested.

Diablo Canyon Power Plant

Seabrook's Clamshell Alliance inspired the formation of California's Abalone Alliance

Abalone alliance

, a coalition that included sixty member groups by 1981. The Abalone
Alliance staged blockades and occupations at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant site between 1977 and 1984. Nearly two thousand people were arrested during a two-week blockade in 1981, exceeding Seabrook as the largest number arrested at an anti-nuclear protest in the United States. Specific protests included:

August 6, 1977: The Abalone Alliance
Abalone alliance
The Abalone Alliance was a nonviolent civil disobedience group formed to shut down the Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Diablo Canyon Power Plant near San Luis Obispo on the central California coast in the United States...

held the first blockade at Diablo Canyon Power Plant
Diablo Canyon Power Plant
Diablo Canyon Power Plant is an electricity-generating nuclear power plant at Avila Beach in San Luis Obispo County, California. The plant has two Westinghouse-designed 4-loop pressurized-water nuclear reactors operated by Pacific Gas & Electric. The facility is located on about in Avila Beach,...

in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, and 47 people were arrested.
August 1978: almost 500 people were arrested for protesting at Diablo Canyon.
April 8, 1979: 30,000 people marched in San Francisco to support shutting down the Diablo Canyon Power Plant.
June 30, 1979: about 40,000 people attended a protest rally at Diablo Canyon.
September 1981: more than 900 protesters were arrested at Diablo Canyon.
May 1984: about 130 demonstrators showed up for start-up day at Diablo Canyon, and five were arrested.

In April 2011, there was demonstration of 300 people at Avila Beach calling for the closure of Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant and a halt to its relicensing application process. The event, organized by San Luis Obispo-based anti-nuclear group Mothers for Peace, was in response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

Trojan Nuclear Power Plant

There was opposition to the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant

Trojan Nuclear Power Plant

Trojan Nuclear Power Plant was a pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant located southeast of Rainier, Oregon, United States, and the only commercial nuclear power plant to be built in Oregon. After sixteen years of service it was closed by its operator, Portland General Electric , almost...

from its inception, and this included non-violent protests organized by the Trojan Decommissioning Alliance. The Alliance organized the first major direct action

Direct action

Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...

protest at Trojan in August 1977, and a second round of protests took place that November. Scores of demonstrators were arrested, and in December 1977 a jury found 96 protesters not guilty of criminal trespass.
There was another protest in August 1978, which led to about 280 arrests. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Portland activist Lloyd Marbet and his group, Forelaws on Board, "became Trojan's leading opponents".

Three Mile Island accident

Even before the Three Mile Island accident

Three Mile Island accident

The Three Mile Island accident was a core meltdown in Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979....

, the nuclear industry was facing considerable adverse public opinion. A "sizeable and tenacious opposition movement had caused significant delays" in the licensing and construction of new power plants in the United States. The TMI accident stimulated a rise in anti-nuclear sentiment.

The American public were concerned about the release of radioactive gas from the Three Mile Island accident and many mass demonstrations opposing nuclear power took place across the country in the following months. The largest one was held in New York City in September 1979 and involved two hundred thousand people; speeches were given by Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...

and Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....

. The New York rally was held in conjunction with a series of nightly “No Nukes” concerts

No Nukes (album)

No Nukes: The Muse Concerts For a Non-Nuclear Future was a 1979 triple live album that contained selections from the September 1979 Madison Square Garden concerts by the Musicians United for Safe Energy collective, with Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, and John Hall being the key...

given at Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...

from September 19 through 23 by Musicians United for Safe Energy

Musicians United for Safe Energy

Musicians United for Safe Energy, or MUSE, is an activist group founded in 1979 by Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Bonnie Raitt, and John Hall. The group advocates against the use of nuclear energy, forming shortly after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in March 1979...

.

In the previous May, an estimated 65,000 people, including the Governor of California, attended a march and rally against nuclear power in Washington, D.C.

Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant

June 2, 1979: about 500 people were arrested for protesting about construction of the Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant in Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

.
February 1982: following years of legal action and protests, it was announced that the plant would not be built.

Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant

August 12, 1978: Forty protesters are arrested at the first anti-Shoreham demonstration.

June 3, 1979: following the Three Mile Island accident, some 15,000 people attended a rally organized by the Shad Alliance
Shad Alliance
The Shad Alliance was an active and influential anti-nuclear group which used non-violent, direct action methods in the late 1970s and 1980s. It grew out of the "alliance movement" started in New Hampshire by the Clamshell Alliance...

and about 600 were arrested at Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant
Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant
The Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant was a completed General Electric nuclear boiling water reactor located adjacent to the Wading River in East Shoreham, New York...

in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

.

1989: after many years of protests, the completed Shoreham plant was closed without generating any commercial electrical power.

Rocky Flats Plant

April 28, 1979: 15,000 people demonstrated against the Rocky Flats Nuclear Processing Plant
Rocky Flats Plant
The Rocky Flats Plant was a United States nuclear weapons production facility near Denver, Colorado that operated from 1952 to 1992. It was under the control of the United States Atomic Energy Commission until 1977, when it was replaced by the Department of Energy .-1950s:Following World War II,...

in Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

, making the link between nuclear power and nuclear weaponry.
October 15, 1983: Large demonstration at Rocky Flats.
August, 1989: An estimated 3,500 people turned out for a demonstration at Rocky Flats.

Rancho Seco Nuclear Power Plant

In 1979, Abalone Alliance members held a 38-day sit-in at Californian Governor Jerry Brown

Jerry Brown

Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. is an American politician. Brown served as the 34th Governor of California , and is currently serving as the 39th California Governor...

's office to protest continued operation of Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station

Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station

The Rancho Seco Nuclear Generating Station is a decommissioned nuclear power plant built by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District in Herald, California.-History:...

, which was a duplicate of the Three Mile Island facility. In 1989, Sacremento voters voted to shut down the Rancho Seco power plant.

Protest against the Arms Race

On June 12, 1982, one million people demonstrated in New York City's Central Park

Central Park

against nuclear weapons and for an end to the cold war

Cold War

arms race

Arms race

. It was the largest anti-nuclear protest

Demonstration (people)

and the largest political demonstration in American history.

Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant

See also: Nuclear Free Vermont, Safe Energy Vermont, New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution.

In the 1970s and 1980s there were many protests at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant

Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant

Vermont Yankee is a General Electric boiling water reactor type nuclear power plant currently owned by Entergy. It is located in the town of Vernon, Vermont, and generates 620 megawatts of electricity at full power. The plant began commercial operations in 1972...

which attempted to block access to the plant.

September 23, 1979: some 167 protesters were arrested at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant.
January 2006: 100 anti-nuclear supporters demonstrated at the front door of Entergy Nuclear, and eleven people were arrested for trespassing.
October 2006: 26 people were arrested outside the Brattleboro offices of owner Entergy Nuclear; the demonstration drew about 200 people.
April 27, 2007: Seven anti-nuclear activists were arrested after chaining themselves to a fence at Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The protesters, who call themselves the "Raging Grannies", wanted the plant shut down and have engaged in dozens of similar actions since December 2005.
November 2008: About 15 people held a rowdy protest against Vermont Yankee in the offices of the Public Service Board that regulates utilities.
April 2009: A rally and two full-page advertisements in The Burlington Free Press, which mocked the Vermont Yankee Power Plant, were paid for by a newly formed group, The Clean Green Vermont Alliance.
April 2009: About 150 activists marched from Montpelier's City Hall to the State House to urge lawmakers to back development of clean energy sources such as wind power
Wind power
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....

and solar power
Solar power
Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...

; the marchers had gathered 12,000 signatures in support of closing Vermont Yankee.
September 2009: Frances Crowe
Frances Crowe
Frances Crowe is an American peace activist and pacifist from the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts.-Early life:Crowe was born in Carthage, Missouri. She holds degrees from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri and Syracuse University , and conducted graduate work at Columbia University...

and three other women were arrested for non-violent civil disobedience at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
January 2010: A coalition of anti-nuclear activists participated in a 126-mile walk from Brattleboro to Montpelier in an effort to block the re-licensing of Vermont Yankee. About 175 people took part in the March, some joining for the day and some for longer stretches.
On February 24, 2010, a large number of anti-nuclear activists and private citizens gathered in Montpelier to be at hand as the Vermont Senate voted 26 to 4 to not issue the Vermont Yankee reactor the "Public Good" certificate it needed for continued operation past 2012. Under Vermont law the re-license would have to be approved by both houses to continue operation.
March 2011: 600 people gathered for a weekend protest outside the Vermont Yankee plant. The demonstration was held to show support for the thousands of Japanese people who are endangered by possible radiation from the Fukushima I nuclear accidents.

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station

June 22, 1980: about 15,000 people attended a protest near San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station
San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station
The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is a nuclear power plant located on the Pacific coast of California. The site is in the northwestern corner of San Diego County, south of San Clemente, and surrounded by the San Onofre State Park and next to the I-5 Highway.Unit 1 is no longer in service...

in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

The Livermore Action Group organized many mass protests, from 1981 to 1984, against nuclear weapons which were being produced by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , just outside Livermore, California, is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center founded by the University of California in 1952...

. Peace activists Ken Nightingale and Eldred Schneider were involved:

June 22, 1982: More than 1,300 anti-nuclear protesters were arrested in a nonviolent demonstration.
There is an annual protest against U.S. nuclear weapons research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory , just outside Livermore, California, is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center founded by the University of California in 1952...

in California. In the 2007 protest, 64 people were arrested. More than 80 people were arrested in March 2008 while protesting at the gates of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

International Day of Nuclear Disarmament

International Day of Nuclear Disarmament protests were held on June 20, 1983 at 50 sites across the United States. Many of the protests were against corporations involved in nuclear weapons production. Almost a thousand members of the Livermore Action Group were arrested at one demonstration.

Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament

In 1986, hundreds of people walked from Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

to Washington DC in what is referred to as the Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament

Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament

. The march took nine months to traverse 3700 miles (5,954.6 km), advancing approximately fifteen miles per day.

Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Plant

Yankee Rowe Nuclear Power Plant, shut down in 1992, was subject to years of protests by environmentalists.

Nevada Test Site

From 1986 through 1994, two years after the United States put a hold on full-scale nuclear weapons testing, 536 demonstrations were held at the Nevada Test Site

Nevada Test Site

involving 37,488 participants and 15,740 arrests, according to government records. These are just a few details:

January, 1987: The actor Martin Sheen
Martin Sheen
Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...

and 71 other anti-nuclear protesters were arrested at the Nevada Test Site in a demonstration marking the 36th anniversary of the first nuclear test there.
February 5, 1987: More than 400 people were arrested, when they tried to enter the nation's nuclear proving grounds after nearly 2,000 demonstrators, including six members of Congress, held a rally to protest nuclear weapons testing.
September 30, 1987: 110 demonstrators, including seven pediatricians, were arrested for civil disobedience; charges were later dropped.
March 20, 1989: 75 protesters, including Louis Vitale, were arrested for trespassing in a peaceful Palm Sunday demonstration.
April 20, 1992: 493 anti-nuclear protesters were arrested on misdemeanor charges, as demonstrators clashed with guards at an annual Easter demonstration against weapons testing at the remote desert site.
August 6, 1995: 500 people gathered to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
1997: Over 2,000 people turned out for a demonstration and 700 were arrested.
August 2005: About 200 peace activists, including actor Martin Sheen, gathered for a nonviolent demonstration outside the gates; dozens were given citations and released after crossing police lines.
May 2006: 200 activists protested the Divine Strake explosives test, and 40 were arrested.
April 2007: Nevada Desert Experience
Nevada Desert Experience
The Nevada Desert Experience is a name for the movement to stop U.S. nuclear weapons testing that came into use in the middle 1980s. It is also the name of a particular anti-nuclear organization which continues to create public events to question the morality and intelligence of the U.S. nuclear...

protest, where 39 people were cited by police.

Naval Base Kitsap

There have been anti-nuclear protests at Naval Base Kitsap

Naval Base Kitsap

Naval Base Kitsap is a U.S. Navy base located on the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington state. It was created in 2004 by merging the former Naval Station Bremerton with Naval Submarine Base Bangor...

for many years. Recent protests include:

January 19, 2008: Seventeen people protesting about nuclear weapons at Naval Base Kitsap at Bangor in honor of Martin Luther King. Jr. were detained or arrested. All were released shortly afterward.
May 30, 2008: Twelve people were arrested at an anti-nuclear weapon demonstration at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor — five of them for walking on a sidewalk closed to pedestrian traffic.
November 2, 2009: Five protestors, including Jesuit Priest William J. Bichsel, S.J.
William J. Bichsel, S.J.
William J. Bichsel, S.J. is Jesuit Priest in Tacoma, Washington, United States. He is notable for his actions as a non-violent protester, spending time in federal prison for demonstrating on issues such as Nuclear Weapons, and the School of the Americas.-Biography:Bill Bichsel was born in 1929,...

were arrested for breaking through two levels of security to protest the nuclear weapons stored at the base. The protesters walked to a bunker where the weapons were stored and spilled blood, hung posters and prayed.

Other

April 5, 1990: Culmination of a campaign in rural Allegany County, where hundreds of protesters stopped state officials from surveying a potential nuclear waste dump site.
May 1, 2005: 40,000 anti-nuclear/anti-war protesters march past the UN in New York, 60 years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...

.
2008: Protests about several proposed nuclear reactors.