Seabrook Occupation & Restoration
Artist
Bonnie Acker
United States
Agency Producer
Clamshell Alliance
Date1978
Dimensions14 x 8 1/2 in. (35.6 x 21.6 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LinePoster House Permanent Collection
Object numberPH.7876
DescriptionThe Clamshell Alliance was founded in New Hampshire in 1976 specifically to oppose the construction of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant. This was one of many sites included in Richard Nixon’s Project Independence that aimed to build one thousand nuclear power plants by the year 2000. In April 1977, thousands of activists occupied the construction site. More than 1,400 protestors were arrested—one of the largest mass arrests in U.S. history. Many of those taken into custody refused to pay bail, spending weeks in jail before they were released because the cost of their extended imprisonment was draining tens of thousands of dollars from the state.
This poster publicizes a contentious decision within the Clamshell Alliance that ultimately caused it to split into two factions. Without obtaining consensus from the larger group, the Coordinating Committee accepted the New Hampshire government’s offer that it host a solar-panel festival on the planned site in exchange for calling off a large demonstration (and thereby saving the county money that would have gone toward arresting them again).
Construction of the power plant was completed in 1990, and it still operates today.
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