A Brief History of Nuclear Fission and its Opposition

The opposition to the development of nuclear power and weapons is one of the largest grassroots political movements in history. This movement has done more to shape democratic values here and around the world than any other. Every year we celebrate the Civil Rights Movement and rightly so, but you wouldn't know it that there ever was an antinuclear movement if you only rely on TV or the corporate media for your source of news. The media has done everything in its power to censor the history and broad support this movement has had from people around the world.

Two years before the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, nuclear power was at a turning point here and around the world. Forbes Magazine called the U.S. nuclear power industry the largest financial disaster in American History. The article went on to describe some of the key economic issues that led to the "so-called collapse". In that article, Forbes claimed that it's demise had little to do with public opposition.

Here is a timeline of events, incidents and people that Forbes Magazine and the rest of the corporate media have tried to make go away. In the early days of the movement, anyone who dared question the promotion of nuclear power or weapons was immediately branded a communist or a traitor. Our work is not done until the full story is told of what the nuclear terrorists (US, French, UK, and Russian Governments) have done to us! Let the past not be forgotten for its ability to inspire and root ourselves in the knowledge that we have done the right thing in saying no to nuclear power and weapons.

If you have an event you would like added, please send it to abalone@energy-net "dot" org

• 1895 Whilhelm Roentgen (Germany) discovers X-rays;
  
• 1896 Elihu Thomson (designer of X-ray tubes) claims X-rays are dangerous & calls for protection, but is ignored. By 1922, up to 100 radiologists had died from exposure;
• 1896 Dr. D.W. Gage reports hair loss and skin damages due to X-rays;
  
• 1924 Employees of U.S. Radium Corp. die from licking radium paint brushes while painting watch faces;
  
• 1925 The first exposure standards are set at 730 rems per year.146 times higher than standards in the 1970's;
  
• 1930's X-rays used to test for breast cancer start;
  
• 1934 Marie Curie discovers radioactive isotopes. She dies later of leukemia;
  
• 1934 Enrico Fermi discovers the concept of fission in uranium;
  
• 1939 German physcists successfully split an atom;
  
• 1940-1960 The Hanford weapons facility releases massive amounts of radioactive materials into the air for experimental purposes, Cancer rates downwind are extremely high;
  
• 1942 The ultra secretive $2 billion Manhattan Project is launched. It was dubbed "the greatest single achievement of organized humans in history."
  
• Dec 2 The first reactor (pile) goes critical in Chicago;
  
• 1945 First nuclear device exploded near Los Alamos New Mexico;
  
• 1945 Concerned physicists form the Federation of American Scientists;
• Aug 6 U.S. drops nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Over 100,000 die;
  
• 1946 U.K. study indicates that radiologists have leukemia rates 8 times that of doctors;
  
• July Nuclear bomb testing begins across the Pacific, initiating the 40 year experiment in using humans to determine the impacts of radiation (Bikini Island);
  
• Oct Atomic Energy Act passed by congress initiates the Atomic Energy Commission (the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is its current descendant);
  
• 1948 Soviet Union tests its first nuclear device;
• 1950's United Mine Workers oppose nuclear development due to the dangers of mining uranium. Mining would be dangled in front of native americans in the southwest where most of the country's uranium was located;
  
• 1950-1963 U.S. initiates large scale atmospheric testing. Media pushes americans into nuclear faddism. Nuclear planes, cars, ships introduced with the line "power to cheap to meter", while kids learn to duck and cover at school;
  
• 1950 (Aug) An air force bomber crashes killing Gen. Travis and 18 others in Northern California that releases radiation;
  
• 1952 (Dec) The Chalk River experimental reactor in Canada has a partial meltdown that releases millions of gallons of water into the reactor containment area;
• 1953 The detection of nuclear fallout in Troy New York started the campaign opposing atmospheric nuclear tests;
  
• 1953 Atoms for Peace announced, the formation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (U.N.) initiates campaigns to develop "Peaceful uses of nuclear tech";
  
• 1954 (Mar) A bomb bigger than 1,000 Hiroshima bombs is exploded, contaminating several inhabited Micronesian islands;
  
• 1955 (May) over 6,000 military personel are exposed without their knowledge to a massive nuclear blast (Operation Wigwam);
  
• 1956 The Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) and the AFL-CIO opposed the experimental Fermi breeder reactor. The government went ahead with the facility which had a partial meltdown in 1966 and covered up until 1975 when "We Almost Lost Detroit" was published;
• 1956 Dr. Alice Stewart clinically proves the link between cancer and low-levels of radiation; A 50% increase in childhood cancers due to fetal X-rays;
  
• Apr Albert Schweitzer radio speech inspires Dr. Linus Pauling to recruit concerned scientists for a push to end atmospheric testing;
  
• 1957 The committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE) later SANE-Freeze published an advetisement in the New York Times spurring the nationwide anti-nuclear weapons movement;
• 1957 Eisenhower signs the Price-Anderson Act which limits accidents claims;
• 1957 Shippingport PA reactor begins operation;
• 1957 Large explosion at Lake Kystym in the Ural Mt. area of the Soviet Union's nuclear weapons facility releases 20 million curies. The area has been permanently quarantined off;
  
• Sep Rocky Flats weapons facility near Denver has a fire that releases 25,618 micrograms of plutonium into the environment;
  
• Oct The English Windscale #1 plutonium reactor catches 12 tons of uranium on fire. The fire is out of control for over 24 hours. Millions of gallons of milk were contaminated and had to be destroyed due to the radioactive releases;
  
• 1958 Barry Commoner and other forms the St. Louis Committee for
  Nuclear Information;
• 1958 (Jan) Linus Pauling and activists collect 11,000 signatures from scientists calling for a nuclear test ban;
  
• 1958 - A Santa Rosa Press Democrat reporter discloses PG&E plan to build 4 reactors 1000 feet from the 1906 SF earthquake fault zone. A 4 year battle ensues that stops the construction of the Bodega Bay Nuclear Complex;
• 1959 The Federal Radiation Council is created to set radiation standards due to public pressure from continued nuclear tests; 5 rems per year for workers established;
  
• July A small reactor melts down in San Fernando Valley (Los Angels Basin) releasing radiation into the surrounding area;
  
• 1960 Rachel Carson expresses concern about the dumping of nuclear wastes into the Oceans, linking pesticides and nuclear power as being dangerous to the environment;
• 1960 Thousands turn out for a SANE rally at Madison Square Gardens
• 1959-1963 First anti-nuclear reactor campaign succeeds at stopping Pacific Gas and Electric's (PGE) plan to build a major reactor complex at Bodega Bay Ca. (1,000 ft from the San Andreas Fault near the epi-center of the 1906 quake);
  
• 1961 Women's Strike for Peace is formed. The group would hold rallies in over 60 cities involving 50,000 women;
• 1961 A B-52 bomber carrying the equivalent of 1600 Hiroshima bombs crashes in North Carolina. Five of six safety switches broke;
  
• 1961 Physicians for Social Responsibility is formed. PSR was instruental in getting president Kennedy to signing the Limited Test Ban Treaty;
• Jan The SL-1 reactor explodes near Idaho Falls Id, a control rod pins a worker to the ceiling; 3 workers are buried in lead lined caskets due to heavy contamination;
  
• Mar A B-52 Bomber with nuclear weapons aboard crashlands near Yuba City, Ca.;
  
• 1962 Ravenswood, Queens NYC stops planned nuclear station;
• 1963 6 year Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) radiation safety study by Dr. John Gofman and Dr. Arthur Tamplin calls for a tenfold reduction in dosage levels.
• 1963 Initial plans are made by PGE for the construction of the Diablo Canyon reactor. The company has plans to build over 60 reactors, including a floating reactor. Also planned is a major reactor complex near the 1989 quake epi-center;
  
• Mar A nuclear experiment at a reactor without a containment area releases a large amount of gaseous radiation into the environment at Livermore Ca.;
  
• Aug Edward Teller testifies against the proposed Nuclear Weapons Test Ban;
  
• 1964 (Apr) A U.S. navigational satellite with a nuclear reactor on board burns up in the atmosphere, releasing 17,000 curies of Plutonium-238;
  
• no date Meshoppen breeder reactor in Wyoming Cnty PA stopped. The project is moved to Clinch River Tennessee;
• 1965 (Jan) An accident at Livermore Labs releases 300,000 curies of radiation into the air;
  
• 1965-75 2nd uranium mining boom starts attacking native lands across the southwest, led by oil company land speculation;
• 1966 A B-52 bomber accidentally drops 3 nuclear weapons on a Spanish fishing village(they didn't go off). Plutonium contaminates 640 acres of farmland;
  
• Sep A plutonium fire ocurrs at Livermore Labs near San Francisco;
  
• Oct Enrico Fermi breeder reactor near Detroit Mi. has a partial meltdown during its initial start-up. An alert to evacuate Detroit is made;
  
• 1967 plan to build reactor in Malibu Ca. stopped;
• 1967 - plan to build reactor near Eugene Oregon stopped;
• 1967 Plutonium from the Livermore labs leaks into the city's sewer system for 3 weeks. The city was using dried sewage for fertilizer at the time;
  
• 1967 The Scenic Shoreline Preservation Conference (SSPC), actually the San Luis Obispo chapter of the Sierra club, was formed 4 years after PG&E started planning a new reactor complex on the central coastline of California. The group immediately called for detailed seismic investigations for PG&E's $310
  million plan to build two reactors. Twenty-one years later, PG&E's Diablo Canyon reactors were ratebased: $3 billion for decommisioning costs, $5.8 billion for construction costs and roughly $7 billion for financing. Without the $2.5 billion EPA loan from the Reagan Administration after the 1981 debacle where
  it was discovered the company had build the seismic supports backwards, the reactors would not have been completed;
• 1968 A B-52 with 4 nuclear bombs crashes in Greenland. The U.S. is required to remove 1.7 million gallons of radioactives wastes from the crash site;
  
• 1969 With the passage of the Natioal Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) activists legally challenged the dumping of hot water into a nearby lake by the Calvert Cliffs nuclear facility, which led to a court decision on 7-23-71 requiring all nuclear power plants to file environmental impact statements;
• Aug: The United States announced a one-megaton nuclear bomb test, “Milrow,” scheduled for October on Amchitka Island, in the Aleutian Islands;
• September 29 SPEC (Scientific Pollution and Environmental Control Society) – Gwen and Derrick Mallard – organized a demonstration at the US Consulate in downtown Vancouver to protest the nuclear bomb test. Bob Hunter made placards for the protest and came up with, “DON’T MAKE A WAVE.” Attending this protest were Bob and Zoe Hunter, Irving Stowe, Bob Cummings, Lille d’Easum, Paul Watson, Ben Metcalfe, Rod Marining, Paul and Linda Spong, and others who would eventually form the core of Greenpeace;
• October 1 SPEC and the UBC Alma Mater Society organized a demonstration at the US/Canadian border. The same group was there, blockading the highway. Irving and Dorothy Stowe held the Quaker banner. SPEC brandished their DON’T MAKE A WAVE signs. That night, the Milrow blast was detonated 4,000 feet below the surface of Amchitka Island. The blast registered a Richter 6.9 shockwave;
• October 25 Cartoonist Ron Cobb designed the ecology symbol and published it in the Los Angeles Free Press. In December, Hunter reproduced the symbol in his Vancouver Sun column. “I venture to predict,” Hunter wrote, “that it will become as familiar as the peace symbol.” In that same month, Marshall McLuhan, working for Toronto’s Pollution Probe, said: “In the 1970s we will see a rampage of ecological prosecutions.” McLuhan’s media theories had a profound effect on Hunter, Metcalfe, and ultimately on Greenpeace;
• 1969 The ultra top secret Naval Radiological Defense Lab in San Francisco is Shut down leaving the Hunter's Point shipyard highly contaminated;
• 1969 Dr. John Gofman & Dr. Arthur Tamplin demand a 10 fold reduction in maximum permissable exposures to nuclear workers and the public;
  
• Jan The Lucens underground reactor in Switzerland has a loss of coolant incident and explodes;
  
• 1970's Women's magazinzes like Redbook and Ladies Home Journal start covering nuclear issues;
• no date Carrie Dikerson cofounds Citizens for Safe Energy which successfully stops Oklahoma Public Service's Black Fox Facility;
• no date Dolly Weinhold takes on Seabrook owners plan to build reactors on over a faultline;
• no date Virginia school teacher, June Allen takes on Virginia Electric Power Company over building North Anna over a faultline;
• 1970 As part of the fallout over the Sierra Club's involvement in Diablo Canyon, the club's director David Brower quits to co-found Friends of the Earth and make a national stand against nuclear power;
• 1970 The National Academy of Sciences forms the BEIR committee to evaluate existing exposure standards to nuclear workers and the public;
  
• 1970 AEC selects an underground salt mine in Lyons Kansas the nations HLW repository, but withdraws the plan in 1972;
• Jan National Environmental Policy Act takes effect, requiring the nuclear industry to files Environmental Impact Statement's;
  
• February 8 Marie Bohlen, inspired by the Quaker boat Golden Rule, came up with the idea to send a boat to Amchitka to protest the nuclear tests. The Vancouver Sun announced the plan as a Sierra Club campaign, but when the Sierra Club in California rejected the idea, Vancouver’s Don’t Make a Wave Committee embraced it. At a meeting at the Unitarian Church that week, as Irving Stowe flashed the "V" sign and said “Peace,” Bill Darnell, replied modestly, “Make it a green peace.”
• February 15 The Vancouver Sun ran story about the intended voyage, dropping the Sierra Club reference and mentioning a boat to be called “the Greenpeace,” the first time the term appeared in print as a single word.Marie Bohlen’s son, Paul Nonnast, designed the first button with the ecology symbol above, the peace symbol below, and in the middle, the single word: GREENPEACE. The Don’t Make A Wave Committee published the first “Greenpeace” pamphlet in March 1970: Nuclear Testing in the Aleutians, written by 71-year-old Lille d'Easum, an executive of the BC Voice of Women;
• March Paul Cote met Captain John Cormack, 60, on a Fraser River dock, and Cormack agreed to use his fishing boat, the Phyllis Cormack, for the voyage. The boat was renamed “Greenpeace” for the campaign;
• Aug A livermore Labs accident releases 300,000 curies of radiation;
  
• Sep A battle over the right of state's to regulate nuclear power gains momentum;
  
• October 5 Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Phil Ochs, and BC band Chilliwack staged a benefit concert in Vancouver for the Don’t Make a Wave Committee, which raised $17,000. Thereafter, the Sierra Club and Quaker groups in the US contributed funding to the campaign;
• 1971 (Nov) 50,000 gallons of nuclear waste is accidentally released into the St. Paul Mn. drinking water supply;
  
• September 15 Tthe Phyllis Cormack, rechristened Greenpeace for the voyage, departed Vancouver;
• September 30 The Greenpeace boat was arrested the US Coast Guard at Akutan Island, charged with a customs infraction, and sent back to Sand Point for formal customs entry. However, eighteen crewmembers of the Coast Guard ship signed a document in support of the protest. The Greenpeace boat never reached Amchitka Island, but the furor it set in motion was decisive in halting the series of underground tests;
• October 29 On the way back to Vancouver, Hunter and Metcalfe proposed that upon their return, they should reconstitute the organization as the “Greenpeace Foundation.” Hunter borrowed the term “Foundation” from Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy;
• 1972 Walsh-Healey Act passed enforcing unanium mining standards;
• 1972 Nixon declares two national sacrafice areas, one at the four corners of AZ, CO, UT, and NM, the other in part of the Dakotas, WY and MT. These were areas where uranium mill tailings and uranium mining were actively being developed;
• 1973 OPEC oil embargo shakes US economy. Nixon calls for 1000 reactors by the turn of the century;
• 1974 Serious HLW tank leaks at Hanford makes national news;
• 1974 The Energy Reoganization Act is passed creating the Energy Researcj and Development Administration and NRC;
• 1974 ECCS hearings exposes AEC coverups resulting in its breakup. Its promotional duties were transfered to the Energy Research and Development Administration (subsumed into DOE in 1978) while its regulatory duties were reorganized around the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Under the AEC, ERDA and DOE, the nuclear industry was the leading reciprient of all research and development funds from the early 1950's up until TMI;
• 1974 Presidential spouse: Betty Ford's masectomy makes breast X-rays a fad;
  
• Feb Sam Lovejoy topples a weather data gathering tower in Montague MA, initiating a campaign that forces the Northeast Utilities Co to abandon their reactor;
  
• Nov Karen Silkwood is killed on the way to a meeting where she was to deliver documents exposing unsafe activities at Kerr-McGee igniting the national movment. The National Organization of Women and the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) joined to fight the growing wareness
  of exposure to nuclear industry workers. NOW supported November 13th as National Karen Silkwood day from 1978 into the mid 80's;
  
• 1975 Colorado officials "discover" 5,000 houses and public areas where radioactive tailings were mixed with concrete to produce sidewalks, basements and streets in Grand Junction;
  
• Feb Whyl, Germany -- The 1st mass civil disobediance protest against a nuclear facility. 200,000 protestors from across Europe do civil
  disobediance at the Whyl Germany nuclear facility. From this campaign Germany's Die Grunen (Green Party) would form calling for the end of country' nuclear power operations;
  
• Mar Brown's Ferry reactor (Alabama) experiencs a serious accident causing $150 million in damages when a worker uses a candle that burns the electrical connection between the reactor and computer controls;
  
• 1975 Ralph Nader holds the "Critical Mass conference in an attempt to organize a national antinuclear movement and the formation his Critical Mass Energy Project;
• 1975 The Urban Environmental conference is held to link workers and environmentalists in the campaign against nuclear power;
• 1975 The Mothers for Peace was formed around oposition to Diablo Canyon, inspired by Abalone fisherman who were arrested after protesting the first hot tests that killed 10 of thousands of Abalone;
• 1975 Environmentalists For Full Employment is formed, publishing their Jobs and Energy book in 1977;
• 1975 In a nationwide evaluation of X-ray operators, 63% of those tested failed to operate machines properly;
  
• Nov A Soviet reactor has a serious accident that releases over 1.5 million curies of radiation into the surrounding environment. The incident was discovered by activists in 1992 and acknowledged by the Russian gov. in Jan.1996;
  
• 1976 Opposition at Seabrook includes Sam Lovejoy's power tower actions. The clamshell Alliance and does its first civil Disobediance action in August, inspired by the Whyl Germany action. The Quaker decisionmaking model of consensus is used by the direct action movement, and which is soon called feminist
  process;
• 1976 Californians for Nuclear Safeguards mounted a statewide initiative campaign to ban all nuclear power development in the state. When the vote started getting close, PG&E in fear lobbied for and the state passed a counter measure that would dissallow all further nuclear power development in California until there was a place to store High Level Wastes. The initiative lost as opponents spent millions of dollars in a major media campaign;
• 1976 Statewide initiative campaigns were also mounted in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Montana, Arizona and Ohio. All Lost;
• 1976 President Woodcock of the UAW comes out in opposition to nuclear at the national conference on Environmental and Economic Justice;
• Dec The Joint Committee on Atomic Energy is finally stripped of its cold war powers to push nuclear agendas in complete secrecy from the public;
  
• 1977 (Aug) Jimmy Carter reorganizes the federal regulatory structure after years of corrupt practices between the federal government and the nuclear industry. The DOE and NRC are created;
  
• 1977 The Clamshell Alliance holds another action, with 1,414 people being arrested. The Clamshell action would inspire direct action groups across the country: Abalone Alliance in California, the Crabshell Alliance in Washington state, the Sunflower Alliance in Kansas, the Catfish Alliance in 10 southern states
  and the Palmetto Alliance in South Carolina. Direct Action as a Ghandian strategy was started as it became clear that legal opposition to nuclear power wasn't working to stop its expansion;
• no date The Solar Energy Research Institute is set up by Carter.
• 1977 - 1982 Dozens of popular books on the subject of energy issues are published.
• 1977 People Against Nuclear Power in San Francisco is formed in January with Quaker help. At its peak PANP would have 13 neighborhood groups. PANP, PGE and Quaker organizers would decide to use consensus process in the formation of the Abalone Alliance. At its peak the Abalone Alliance would have over 60 organizations, including Greenpeace and the Alliance for Survival that had offices in every major city in California;
• May The newly formed San Luis Obispo group People Generating Energy (PGE) holds a baloon launch protest at Diablo Canyon with 2,000 people showing up. Abalone Alliance is formed at a statewide conference of activists;
• June California activists hold the Conference for a Non-Nuclear Future with Dr. John Gofman giving the opening address;
• August: The Abalone Alliance holds its first action at Diablo Diablo Canyon in August, with 78 arrests and 1,500 supporters. Five the arrestes were later discovered to be undercover police;
• 1977 The dirtiest nuclear reactor in the U.S., located in Arcata California, was forced to close under public pressure when plutonium was found on a school playground not far from PG&E's Humboldt Bay nuclear power station;
• 1977 Amory Lovin's Soft Energy Path is published promoting the idea of alternative energy as a viable option to nuclear power;
• 1977 The Nuclear Information Resource Service is formed;
  
• 1978 Sun Day is held across the country on May 3rd, with 25 million participaint in the event, promoting alternatives to nuclear power. From this organizing, grassroots solar and energy conservations groups sprung up;
• 1978 Montana and Hawaii pass limited anti-nuclear public initiatives;
• no date Ronald Reagan, in his nationally syndicated radio talk show program states that all of the nuclear waste generated in the U.S. could be fit in his garage!
• 1978 Citizens-Labor Energy coalition is formed in April with the support of the International Aerospace & Machinist's Union;
• 1978 Grace Paley and 10 other womean unfurl a banner on the White House Lawn that says "No Nuclear Weapons--No Nuclear Power -- USA
  and USSR";
• 1978 Jimmy Carter stops the U.S. Breeder Reactor program over concern about nuclear proliferation issues;
• 1978 The first Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) campaign in Missouri loses in an attempt to stop public subsidization;
• Jan A nuclear powered soviet satellite crashes into Northwestern Canada, spreading radioactive (500,000 curies) debris over thousands of square miles;
• June 24 8,000 non-violence trained members ogranized into affinity groups by the Clamshell alliance take over the Seabrook reactor site and hold a "legal" three day rally with performances by Pete Seeger Arlo Guthrie, Jackon Browne, Dick Gregory and Dr. John Gofman. Over 20,000 people show up for the event;
• August 6 (Hiroshima bombing anniversary) 5,000 people protest and 487 are arrested at an Abalone Alliance blockade at Diablo;
• August The American Indian Movement (AIM) organizes the National No Nuclear Strategy conference in Kentucky;
• 1978 Women of all Red Nations (WARN) is organized to oppose nuclear development and allying themselves with the Black Hills Alliance to oppose uranium mining in the Black HIlls of SD;
• 1978 16 major building trade unions signed no strike deals with the four major nuclear industry construction companies: Bechtel, Stone & Webster, Ebasco Services and United Engineers & Constructors;
• 1978 A local initiative in Skagit Cnty Wa., forces Puget Sound, Power & Light to move two proposed BWR reactors onto the Hanford reservation;
• 1979 Just weeks before TMI hits Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon star in the hit movie China Syndrome, educating the general public about the dangers of nuclear power for the first time;
• no date The Power Tower movement in the upper midwest starts taking down power towers;
• 1979 270 million X-rays were taken of U.S. citizens during the year;
  
• March 29 Three Mile Island (Pa.) has a reactor core meltdown. Government and the nuclear industry coverup the fact about the meltdown for years;Protests start erupting across the country with actions at Wall Street, Rocky Flats, Harrisburg PA, even in Texas. (More details??!!! on these events needed)
  
• April 7th Over 25,000 people come to a People Against Nuclear Power rally in SF.Joan Baez and Jackson Browne perform;
• April The formation of the American Indian Environmental Council in the southwest takes place;
• May 65,000 people rally against nuclear power in Washington DC;
• June 6 Over 50,000 people show up at a rally outside of Diablo Canyon where California Govenor Jerry Brown announces his opposition to nuclear power;
• July 16 The largest nuclear waste spill in U.S. history occurs. 100 million gallons of radioactive water spill from United Nuclear Corporations waste storage pond near Church Rock New Mexico, contaminating the Dineh' peoples water supply from the Rio Puerco river;
  
• Aug Radiation is released from a top secret Tennessee facility, contaminating over 1,000 people in the surrounding area;
  
• October 29 "The Manhattan Project" holds protests on Wall Street against continued corporate financing of nuclear power;
• 1979 Women's groups opposed to nuclear like Women's Pentagon Action N&S, DONT, LUNA, WONT and WAND spring up across the country. The Handbook for Women on the nuclear mentality is published;
• 1979 The YWCA reverses its support of nuclear power, with the League of Women Voters calling on a moratorium on new facilities;
• 1979 1,600 workers at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon Ohio strike over safety issues at the facility;
• 1979 The AFL-CIO helps finance and organize against a statewide Texan referendum to shut down the South Texas Nuclear Project. Texas activists push for a "people's energy Movment";
• 1979 Anti-nuclear resolutions were passed at local, regional and national levels of the country's Unions;
• 1979 Holly Near mounts her Nuclear Free Future nationwide singing tour;
• 1979 Greenpeace activists scale the Rancho Seco (TMI Twin) gates and are arrested;
• 1979 Abalone Alliance activists hold sit in at California Govenor Brown's office;
• No Date No Nukes Concert in NYC brings out 1 million people. Movie documenting the event is made. Seldom shown;
• 1980 GE Stockholder's Alliance against Nuclear Power formed to demand that General Electric get out of nuclear power. Start of Boycott GE Campaign;
• 1980 - The Women and Life on Earth: Ecofeminism conference is held;
• May 8th A coalition of 25 women's anti-nuclear groups calling themselves the Northeast Wymen's Alliance held a conference in Connecticut in a protest against United Techonologies;
• May 24th The Clamshell holds another action at Seabrook;
• 1980 A consortium of 30 municipal power coops in Western Mass. reduced its financial backing for Seabrook;
• 1980 Barry Commoner starts the Citizen's Party, modeling it after Germany's Die Grunen Party;
• 1980 The national Survival Summer Campaign is launched with rallies in SF and on the east coast;
• 1980 The Alliance for Survival in Los Angeles grows to 100,000 members and joins the Abalone Alliance;
• 1981 The Black Hills Alliance holds a national gathering in the Black Hills with thousand across the country attending;
• 1981 An EPA lawyer helps the Alliance for Suvival legally stops the MX missile production in California, through a contact initially made with PANP;
• 1981 The 18,000 strong local 1010 steelworkers in Chicago join the Bailly Alliance in opposing the construction of the Bailly nuclear facility near Gary Indiana;
• March 28 15,000 union members sponsored by 12 international unions held a march against nuclear power in Harrisburg PA. The AFL-CIO publicly attacked the rally;
• August Less than 1/3 of U.S. states require licensing of operators of X-ray machines (radiologists);Congress finally passes a law regulating radiologists;
  
• September The Largest single act of civil-disobediance against a planned reactor occurrs at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Facility by the Abalone Alliance :) with nearly 2,000 arrested, and tens of thousands of protesters;
  
• Oct Just after the Diablo Blockade, a 25 year old PGE engineer discovers that the seismic blue prints on the $2.1 billion reactors were reversed;
  
• 1982 A new initiative campaign organized by Californians for Nuclear Safeguards was booby trapped by the founder of Nuclear Freeze Campaign. The Freeze movement was the reawakening of the anti-nuclear weapons movement when the Reagan and NATO allies attempted to put nuclear tipped cruise missiles across Europe;
• 1982 President Reagan quietly loans PGE $2.5 Billion in EPA money to help rebuild the Diablo Canyon reactors (for the 3rd time since 1963);
  
• Feb A study done by a Center for Disease Control scientist indicated that up to 95% of cancers contracted by cigarette smokers could be due to radioactive polonium-210 that comes from commercial fertilizers used on tobacco. A 1-1/2 pack a day smoker receives the equivalent of 300 chest X-rays a year;
  
• 1983 PG&E takes the 1975 state law to the U.S. Supreme Court in an attempt to oveturn it but fails. Up to that point the company, the largest electric company in the country, had been planning on building over 60 nuclear reactors in its service area. Opponents blocked active attempts to build reactors in Kern
  County and just north of Santa Cruz. Citizen opposition to the Santa Cruz reactor complex was located a few miles from the epicenter of the 1989 earthquake that shook the San Francisco Bay area causing over $10 billion in damages;
• 1983 Israel attacks and destroy's Iraq new nuclear power facility;
• 1983 shortly after Israeli attack on Iraq, a Greenpeace activist demonstrates the state of U.S. nuclear security by shooting fireworks into the Zion nuclear power facility containment vessel. The event was filmed by a major local TV station but not noticed by the facilities security;
• 1984 Forbes magazine publishes a stinging documentation of the American nuclear industry, calling it the biggest financial disaster in American history;
  
• 1985 The German company Nukem sells South Africa equipment necessary for the production of nuclear bombs;
  
• Sep The Rocky Mountain Intitute publishes a report in the Wall Street Journal exposing the fact that nuclear power was getting 34% of all federal R&D funding for energy but producing less than 2% of the total energy used by americans;
  
• Dec Rancho Seco experiences a near meltdown accident. The accident is covered up by officials until Chernobyl;
  
• 1986 Nader's natiowied Citizien Utility Board (CUB) movement is killed by a first amendment lawsuit by PG&E;
• 1986 A 30,000 pound cylinder of Uranium Hexaflouride at a Kerr-McGee nuclear fuels facility ruptures, killing 1 person, injuring 100 and spewing radiation into the surrounding community;
  
• Apr 26 The Chernobyl reactor explodes, blowing the lid of the U.S. nuclear industry, and releasing over 100 million of curies of radiation into the northern hemisphere;
  
• May A fire at the Browns Ferry reactor in Alabama destroys a cooling tower;
  
• 1986 A Question of Power, the documentary covering the battle to stop Diablo Canyon is released. Its only been shown on PBS and that years after its release;
• May The first time an anti-nuclear power activist is given an interview on TV news in the SF Bay;
  
• May Point Reyes Bird Observatory says 2/3rds of the 1986 Northern California coastal baby bird population died from Chernobyl fallout;
• 1986 Berkeley California votes to become a nuclear free zone, a nationwide movement to grows to an international scale;
• 1986 FAS holds a coast to coast debate on Nuclear Power
• 1986 San Francisco's KQED holds a heavily moderated debate on nuclear power;
• 1986 The Columbia Inter-tribal Fish Commission calls for the shutdown of Hanford;
• 1986 The Committee to Bridge the Gap succeeds at getting Hanford's N reactor, a Chernobyl type reactor without a containment vessel shut down;
• 1987 The largest ever liquid sodium spill ever occurrs at Eurotom's SuperPhoenix Breeder Reactor in France;
  
• Jan A Nuclear bribery scandal rocks the European nuclear industry. The head of Transnuklear commits suicide after disclosures of illegal activities;
  
• 1988 The committee in charge of investigating exposure impacts for Hiromshima and Nagasaki victims calls for new exposure limits 4-16 times lower than currently allowed; UK responds and lowers allowable doses. US attacks findings and ignores them completely;
  
• 1988 Khosrow Semnani buys Utah land around the stored Vitro tailings. Envirocare Inc. becomes a commercial waste dump for the low-level wastes;
• 1988 UC Berkeley's Etcheverry experimental reactor is decommissioned when it was disovered the reactor sat on top of an active faultline;
• Aug A coverup of a serious accident at the Savannah River Weapons facility is the final straw in the collapse of the DOE's nuclear weapons program. Incident after incident that have been never covered properly by the media finally come out. Initial estimates for cleaning up the mess hit $150 billion;
  
• Nov Just prior to President Reagan's term of office expires, he signs an executive order that overrides a Massachussetts ruling that blocks the Seabrook nuclear facility from operation. The reactor is started up soon afterwards without adaequate evacuation plans. The ruling also allows Shoreham to go online;
  
• Dec After 5 years and over $100 million legal fees spent by PGE, the Ca. PUC gives the utility a $54 billion contract to operate Diablo Canyon; The media covers up the scale of the deal, calling it good for the public;
  
• 1989 The American Solar Energy Society completes a study indicating $4.3 billion in yearly hidden costs to Americans from nulcear wastes;
  
• Mar On the 10th anniversary eve of the TMI accident, Rancho Seco experiences another shutdown, all but sealing its fate;
  
• June Sacramento residents vote to close down Rancho Seco permanently:
  
• June The owner of the $6 billion Shoreham reactor agrees to sell it to New York for $1. The reactor was completed but never allowed to operate;
  
• June 5 The day after the Tiananmen massacre, 627 Clamshell activists are arrested for blocking the gates to Seabrook, which was forced into operation by Reagan's executive order; against the will of the state of New Hampshire;
• 1990 Congress passes the Radioactive Exposure Compensation Act to compensate downwinders and uranium mine and mill workers harmed by radiation
• 1990 (Jan) Limerick 2 nuke begins operating, ten years behind schedule and billions over budget;
  
• Mar A DOE study uncovers the danger of an explosion at 20 plutonium storage tanks at Hanford;
  
• Mar The Final shipment of the mangled core of Three-Mile Island is sent for the Idaho National Engineering Labs for storage. RIP;
  
• Mar DOE proposed budget calls for $3.3 billion to melt high level waste into cylinders carrying 400,000 curies of radiation for disposal;
  
• April The final shipment of damaged fuel from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant arrives at a DOE facility in Idaho;
• Apr Areas of New Jersey are selected as a superfund site, calling for $250 million to haul away 325,000 cubic yards of radioactive soil;
  
• Apr The Italian parliament votes to close its last two operating nuclear reactors, in accordance with a public vote to close them;
  
• Apr A GAO report, issued at the request of Senator John Glenn, shows that the U.S. military services have no idea how much low-level nuclear waste they have produced and stockpiled;
  
• Apr The Vogtle reactor in Georgia suffers a "station blackout" when a truck carrying nuclear fuel backs into a power pole, cutting power to the reactor;
  
• May A New government report shows vast amounts of mercury and cesium in sediments of a 39,000 acre reservoir system around the Oak Ridge weapons production plant;
  
• May The USFDA approves food irradiation for poultry products;
  
• May East Germany agrees to shut the Griefswald reactor, its largest, which suffered a core melt accident in 1989;
  
• May Turkish residents form a 24-kilometer human chain in opposition to that government's plans for its first nuclear reactor. Soon thereafter, the government abandoned its plans;
  
• May The Gdansk region of Poland votes by an overwhelming margin, 86%, to close Poland's first nuke, Zarnoiec;
  
• May A West German tribunal shuts the nation's oldest reactor, which had been operating for 20 years wihout a legitimate license;
  
• May The Spanish government, after over a year of public protests, closes the Vandellos I reactor, which had a serious fire in 1989;
  
• June Congress votes down a proposal for $65 million to build a new plutonium processing facility at Rocky Flats;
  
• June The Center for Disease Control announces it will conduct a thyroid morbidity study at the Hanford weapons facility;
  
• July The DOE petitions the NRC to allow exposure rates for workers at high level waste facilities to increase to 5 rem per year, even as the International Commission on Radiological Protection seeks a three fold decrease in exposure levels:
  
• July A two year cleanup of a DeKalb County, Georgia sterilization/irradiation plant contaminated by radioactive cesium will cost taxpayers more than $30 million, state and federal officials reported;
  
• Aug A European Community opinion poll on nuclear power shows overall opposition in Europe at 51%;
  
• Aug Increasing seismic activity near the Chernobyl facility have experts worried that a major tremor could crack the sarcophagus encasing the damaged reactor core, releasing more radiation from the tomb;
  
• Sep The NRC proposes rules allowing them to okay 40-year licensing extensions to the nation's operating reactors;
  
• Sep A S.F. Chronicle report on toxic wastes shows the highest percentage of people polled, 70%, are most concerned about nuclear waste;
  
• Sep A Hydrogen explosion and fire at a nuclear fuel facility in the soviet republic of Kazakhstan causes the eastern region to be declared an ecological disaster area due to beryllium fallout;
  
• Sep Don't Waste California formed to oppose the Ward Valley LLW facility proposed near Needles Ca.;
• Oct The Union of Concerned Scientists releases a report by MHB Associates on "inherently safe" reactors which concludes that there is no such thing. All reactor designs studied had some potential of releasing radiation;
  
• Oct 57% of residents around the Fukushima nuclear reactor in Japan vote to keep the troubled reactor shut down. The reactor was shut in Feb., 1989 due to a serious accident. Tokyo Electric reopens the facility anyway;
  
• Nov Scientists from the Austrian Institute for Ecology find the Czech uranium ore processing facility (Mape) heavily contaminated with Radium-226;
  
• Nov Forty-three member countries of the London Dumping Convention, a treaty organization that regulates the dumping of waste at sea, agree to phase out dumping of all industrial wastes in the ocean by the year 1995;
  
• 1991 Ca. State Lands Commission blocks transfer of Ward Valley to the state, stopping construction of the LLW facility;
• 1991 Depleted Uranium used against Iraq military in Gulf War;
• 1991 A new survey shows that 62% of Americans are now opposed to the development of nuclear power, up from 20% in 1975;
  
• U.S. invades Iraq, initiating 16 year war against the country, killing over a million children, spending the next 5 years dismantling its nuclear infrastructure;
• Feb The EPA releases a study indicating that up to 75% of homes in several regions of the country have excessive radon gasses;
  
• Mar Public Citizen releases a study based on NRC documents indicating 34,000 incidents at U.S. reactors in the previous 10 years, with 832,000 exposure to workers;
  
• Apr On the 5th anniversary of Chernobyl the IAEA releases a study claiming that most of the illnesses experienced by people in contaminated areas around the Chernobyl dissaster area are psychosomatic;
  
• July The US and Soviet Union agree to cut back long-range nuclear weapons by more than 30 percent;
• Nov The USGS uncovers a radioactive aircraft carrier that was used as target practice for the 1946 Bikini Island nuclear blast just west of San Francisco where 47,000 barrels of nuclear waste were dumped;
  
• 1992 The Energy Policy Act of 1992 is signed by Bush. The Act Streamlines the nuclear power licensing process;
• Feb The Russian government dumps 12 Soviet reactors into the Kara Sea along the Artic Ocean. The London Dumping Convention prohibits the dumping of nuclear wastes into the oceans;
  
• 1992 An estimated 30,000 DOE workers to be displaced by the planned restructuring;
• 1992 Political pressures in Oregon forces the closure of PGE's Trojan Nuclear reactor;
• 1993 A tank at Russia's Tomsk-7 facility explodes releasing plutonium and uranium into the air. over 120 sq km is evacuated some permanently;
• 1993 Skull Valley Band of the Goshute Indians consider signing an agreement with DOE to store 40,000 tons of HLW for 40 years in Utah;
• 1993 US announces its plan for the clean up and restructuring of the DOE and its massive nuclear weapons infrastructure;
• June Rockwell Intl agrees to pay $18.5 million fine for illegal disposal of wastes at Rocky Flats;
• August A large crane collapses during refueling onto the reactor core at the Wylfa facility in England nearly causing a meltdown. The incident was finally disclosed by the BBC in Sept. of 1995;
  
• 1994 Estimates for the cleanup of the country's military weapons facilities reach over $100 billion;
• 1994 (Dec) One of Canada's Pickering reactors dumped 140 tons of radioactive water into the containment vessel. An earlier incident in 1983 cost $800 million to clean up;
  
• 1995 (Dec) The $5.9 Billion Monju breeder reactor was closed for at least 2 years after a serious accident released 2-3 tons of liquid sodium which ignites when it comes into contact with oxygen. A cover-up by officials to hide the serious nature of the accident resulted in a top official involved committing suicide. The U. S. media has refused to cover the serious accident which has crippled Japan's massive breeder reactor program. A program similar to one being promoted by the nuclear industry in the U.S.;
• 1996 The push to separate the Manhattan project's nuclear enrichment infrastructure goes ahead with the sale of US Enrichment Corp. (USEC);
• 1996 All 13 of the federally required Low-Level Nuclear Waste facilities in the U.S. have been blocked by citizen opposition starting in 1988;
• 1996 Clinton goes ahead with plan to burn plutonium from Soviet weapons for the production of (mixed oxide) MOX nuclear fuel for commercial reactors;
• 1997 the 1983 censored National Institute of Health study on the impacts from U.S. atmospheric nuclear weapons tests is released;
• 1998 California passes a $28 billion nuclear power bailout deal that starts the process of deregulation;
• 1999 The Japanese Tokaimura nuclear fuel processing facility sets off a chain reaction, killing 2 and exposing 40 to high doses of radiation;
• 2000 The republican controlled U.S. Supreme over rules the Florida Supreme court, handing the election to George Bush;
• 2000 Japan decides to restart its Monju breeder reactor;
• 2001 Former General Electric Nuclear Divsion head announces that there is an energy crisis in California in the L.A. Times;
• 2001 Bush forms the Cheney Energy Task Force, while refusing to put natural gas price caps in place;
• 2001 Bush goes ahead with push to use Yucca Mt as the nation's High Level Nuclear Waste Facility. Nevada Senator calls Bush a lier on national TV;
• 2001 Cheney Task force calls for a new generation of nuclear power;
• 2001 Russia's Minatom Selects Permanent Geological Waste Repository in Siberia
• Mar 600 German protesters are detained and many more block spent fuel going by rail to La hague reprocessing facility
• June Republicans lose control of the Senate, forcing price caps to be put in place, ending California and the west's energy crisis;
• 9-11 3 airliners collide with prominent U.S. buildings, just as the Enron scandal and the dot.com bubble bursts;
• 2002 Bush unilaterally drops out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, with plans to push ahead with a missile defense system;
• 2002 Bush makes his Axis of Evil nations speech in the state of the union address;
• 2002 Israel finally acknowledges the existance of its Dimona nuclear facility in a TV broadcast;
• 2002 Appeals court allows lawsuit by thousands of Hanford workers claiming health impacts to go ahead;
• 2002 Acid leak nearly eats through a steel cap on the Davis-Besse Reactor;
• 2002 DOE announces plans to spend $2-4 billion on construction a new plutonium pit production facility;
• 2002 Bush administration reverses US policy of never being the first to use nuclear weapons;
• 2003 The Columbia shuttle breaks up spreading nuclear materials across the southwest;
• 2003 Bush and the U.S. media go to war against Iraq claiming they have nuclear weapons;
• 2003 17 Japanese reactors temporily shut down when utility acknowledging faking safety reports;
• 2003 James Lovelock calls for development of nuclear power;
• 2003 TVA's Watts Bar restarts the reactor for production of military grade tritium;
• 2003 Senate filibuster blocks Bush's $31 billion energy bill which included nearly $12 billion for nuclear power development;
• 2003 Germany shuts down one of its reactors as part of its plan to phase out its reactor program;
• 2003 US only country in the UN Security Council to vote against enforcing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty;
• 2003 19 kg (over 40 pounds) of plutonium turns up missing at UK's Sellafield reprocessing facility;
• 2003 Edward Teller (Dr. Strangelove), the man who claimed he was the only one injured at TMI, dies;
• 2004 Five workers die at the Mihama nuclear power plant in Japan during a steam explosion;
• 2004 Argentina blocks SoCal Edison's plans to ship their decommissioned reactor around the Horn to Barnwell;
• 2004 Congo calls for help in stopping the illegal mining of uranium within the country;
• May A Tennessee highway is closed for 2 days after tritium was spilled along the road for over two miles;
• July New UK report indicates plutonium may be 10 times more dangerous than previously thought;
• July A federal audit shows that attempts to cleanup Hanford's groundwater have been ineffective;
• July The Columbia Generating station has to be shut down manually when its automated shutdown system fails;
• Aug FDA okays two new drugs for treatment of radioactive contamination from plutonium, curium or americum;
• Aug Hanford completes the removal of millions of gallons of liquid HLW at the reservation;
• Aug DOE is fined $2.4 million by New Mexico for failure to carry out proper safety precautions while moving mixed wastes to WIPP:
• Sept The link between radiation and thyroid cancer confirmed using Chernobyl fallout victims;
• Sept First shipments of weapons grade material from Los Alamos to Nevada is done;
• Oct The NRC has extended the operating licenses of 26 nuclear power facilities since 2002;
• Nov Washington state passes an initiative blocking any further DOE shipments of waste into Hanford until its cleaned up;
• 2005 IAEA projects 60 new nuclear power facilities will open worldwide by 2020;
• March Declassified documents showed that the Ford administration and Dick Cheney organized a deal worth over $4.6 billion, much of it to Westinghouse with plans to develop Iran's nuclear enrichment program;
• April 20 tons of radioactive material leaks from the Sellafield reprocessing facility in the UK;
• April Europe carries out emergency disaster drills;
• May A US judge rules against Shoshone suit blocking Yucca Mt. and reinstating their rights of land from the 1863 treaty;
• June Sweden turns off its oldest reactor and starts switching to more windpower;
• June Japan discloses secret US 1954 radiation contamination experiments;
• June The National Academy of Sciences releases new report warning of about low-dose radiation posing risk of cancer;
• July IAEA official claims 130 new reactors to be built in next 15 years;
• July NRC supports plan to extract uranium from the drinking water of Dineh people near Church Rock in New Mexico;
• Aug Bush signs 2005 Energy Policy Act giving $12 billion for nuclear power development;
• Aug eviction of SF Hunter's Point area begins so that the Navy can begin an $80 million cleanup of contamination from the now closed secret radiological lab;
• Oct The last of 62,000 waste shipments leaves Rocky Flats;
• Nov DOE okays the doubling of plutonium at the Livermore Labs;
• Dec An IAEA survey in 18 country's showed that people were opposed to constructing new nuclear power facilities;
• Dec PG&E is fined $96,000 for misplacing spent fuel rods at its closed Humboldt reactor;
• 2006 Bush announces his Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) plan to develop breeder reactors and the plutonium economy;
• 2006 The Nuclear Energy Institute spends millions promoting nuclear power in the U.S;
• Feb DOE fined $352 million for contaminating the property and workers at Rocky Flats;
• March The $18.6 billion Rokkasho reprocessing plant in Japan begins separating plutonium from spent nuclear fuel;
• 2007 Climate Change is officially acknowledged by Bush just as the push for a new generation of nuclear power reaches full swing around the world;

This is dedicated to Dr. John Goffman who has spent 25 years fighting for the safety of humanity. Sources: Steven Aftergood, Anna Gyorgy, Harvey Wasserman, New England Journal of Medicine; U.S. EPA, Glen Barlow, Abalone Alliance Archives and Professor Harry Cleaver's: The rise of the antinuclear movement  Rex Wyler's History of the beginnings of Greenpeace

Note: This new version of the nuclear timeline is a 2007 update from the original 1995 document. Got a history event you think should be included? send it to abalone@energy-net "dot" org     When we get enough of them, we'll update it again.