The Montague Nuclear Power Plant was a proposed nuclear power plant to be located in Montague, Massachusetts. The plant was to consist of two 1150 MWe General Electric boiling water reactors. The project was proposed in 1973 and canceled in 1980,^[1] after $29 million was spent on the project.^[2]

On 22 February 1974, George Washington's Birthday, organic farmer Sam Lovejoy took a crowbar to the weather-monitoring tower which had been erected at the site on the Montague Plains. 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 went on trial in September 1974 on charges of malicious destruction, but was acquitted on a technicality.^[2]^[3] Lovejoy's action galvanized local public opinion against the plant which ended the project entirely.^[2]^[3]

In 1975, Green Mountain Post Films made Lovejoy's Nuclear War which told the story of the tower toppling and subsequent trial. The documentary film was instrumental in organizing the anti-nuclear movement. Lovejoy, and other members of the Montague Farm commune, such as Anna Gyorgy and Harvey Wasserman, helped to form the Clamshell Alliance anti-nuclear group. In 1977, the Clamshell Alliance was involved in a series of mass protests against the proposed Seabrook, NH twin nuclear plants. The series of protests occupying the proposed site of the Seabrook nuclear power reactor in New Hampshire resulted in over 1,400 arrests, garnered national publicity and inspired nuclear opposition groups in other parts of the United States.^[4]

Green Mountain Post Films, composed of producers Dan Keller and Charles Light (also Montague Farm commune members, went on to make The Last Resort, Early Warnings, Save the Planet, Training for Nonviolence and other films that helped organize a national anti-nuclear movement.

Lovejoy went on to become President of Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) which organized five nights of benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden in 1979, featuring artist such as Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Crosby, Stills and Nash and a host of other music stars. MUSE also staged a 250,000 person rally on what later became Battery Park City in lower Manhattan.

A total of 63 nuclear units were canceled in the USA between 1975 and 1980.^[5] Many nuclear plant proposals were no longer viable due to the downturn of electricity demand, significant cost and time overruns, and more complex regulatory requirements. Also, there was considerable public opposition to nuclear power in the US by this time.^[6]

References

^ Some of the Major Events in NU's History Since the 1966 Affiliation Archived 2013-12-24 at the Wayback Machine
^ ^a ^b ^c Utilities Drop Nuclear Power Plant Plans Ocala Star-Banner, January 4, 1981.
^ ^a ^b Anna Gyorgy (1980). No Nukes: Everyone's Guide to Nuclear Power South End Press, ISBN 0-89608-006-4, pp. 393-394.
^ Lisa Lynch (2012). "'We don't wanna be radiated:' Documentary Film and the Evolving Rhetoric of Nuclear Energy Activism" (PDF). American Literature Ecocriticism Issue.
^ The Changing Structure of the Electric Power Industry p. 110.
^ Nuclear power: Futures, Costs, and Benefits p. 16.

v t e Anti-nuclear movement in the United States
General	Anti-nuclear groups in the US California movement Great Peace March Nuclear history of the United States Nuclear power in the US Canceled nuclear reactors in the US Nuclear weapons and the US Protests in the US Anti-nuclear advocates in the US
Organizations and groups	Abalone Alliance Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility Clamshell Alliance Committee for Nuclear Responsibility Corporate Accountability International Critical Mass Energy Project Friends of the Earth Greenpeace USA Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Mothers for Peace Musicians United for Safe Energy Nevada Desert Experience Nuclear Control Institute Nuclear Information and Resource Service Physicians for Social Responsibility Plowshares movement Ploughshares Fund Public Citizen Shad Alliance Sierra Club Three Mile Island Alert Women Strike for Peace Kings Bay Plowshares
People	Daniel Berrigan William J. Bichsel Bruce G. Blair Larry Bogart Helen Caldicott Barry Commoner Norman Cousins Frances Crowe Carrie Barefoot Dickerson Paul M. Doty Bernard T. Feld Randall Forsberg John Gofman Paul Gunter John Hall Jackie Hudson Sam Lovejoy Amory Lovins Bernard Lown Arjun Makhijani Gregory Minor Hermann Joseph Muller Ralph Nader Graham Nash Linus Pauling Eugene Rabinowitch Phil Radford Bonnie Raitt Carl Sagan Martin Sheen Karen Silkwood Thomas Louis Vitale Harvey Wasserman Victor Weisskopf
Main protest sites	Black Fox Bodega Bay Diablo Canyon Indian Point Lawrence Livermore Montague Naval Base Kitsap Nevada Test Site Rancho Seco Rocky Flats San Onofre Seabrook Shoreham Three Mile Island Trojan Vermont Yankee White House Peace Vigil Y-12 Weapons Plant Yankee Rowe
Books	Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free Conservation Fallout: Nuclear Protest at Diablo Canyon Contesting the Future of Nuclear Power Critical Masses: Opposition to Nuclear Power in California, 1958–1978 The Cult of the Atom The Doomsday Machine (book) Fallout: An American Nuclear Tragedy Killing Our Own Licensed to Kill? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Shoreham Power Plant Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West Nuclear Implosions: The Rise and Fall of the Washington Public Power Supply System Nuclear Politics in America We Almost Lost Detroit
Films	Atomic Ed and the Black Hole The China Syndrome Countdown to Zero Dark Circle Nuclear Tipping Point Silkwood

v t e Nuclear power in the United States
NRC Region I (Northeast)	Beaver Valley Calvert Cliffs FitzPatrick Ginna Hope Creek Limerick Millstone Nine Mile Point Peach Bottom Salem Seabrook Susquehanna
NRC Region II (South)	Browns Ferry Brunswick Catawba Farley Harris Hatch McGuire North Anna Oconee Robinson Sequoyah St. Lucie Summer Surry Turkey Point Vogtle Watts Bar
NRC Region III (Midwest)	Braidwood Byron Clinton Cook Davis–Besse Dresden Enrico Fermi LaSalle Monticello Palisades Perry Point Beach Prairie Island Quad Cities
NRC Region IV (West)	Arkansas Callaway Columbia Comanche Peak Cooper Diablo Canyon Grand Gulf Palo Verde River Bend South Texas Waterford Wolf Creek
Converted	Fort St. Vrain Midland Somerset Zimmer
Closed	ANPP MH-1A ML-1 PM-1 PM-3A SL-1 SM-1 SM-1A Big Rock Point Connecticut Yankee Crystal River CVTR DAEC EBR I EBR II Elk River Fermi 1 Fort Calhoun Fort St. Vrain Hallam Hanford Site Humboldt Bay Indian Point Kewaunee La Crosse Maine Yankee Millstone Unit 1 Oyster Creek Pathfinder Pilgrim Piqua Rancho Seco San Onofre Saxton Shippingport Shoreham Sodium Reactor Experiment Three Mile Island Trojan Vallecitos Vermont Yankee Yankee Rowe Zion
Cancelled (incomplete list, whole plants only)	Allens Creek Atlantic Bailly Barton Bell Bend Bellefonte Black Fox Blue Hills Bodega Bay CFPP, Idaho Cherokee Clinch River Douglas Point Erie Forked River Galena Greene County Hartsville Haven Lee Levy County Marble Hill MM-1 Montague Offshore Sears Isle South River Stanislaus Summer-2/3 Sundesert Victoria WPPSS 1 and 4 3 and 5 Yellow Creek
Future	North Anna-3 Turkey Point-6/7
Under construction	Vogtle-3/4
Regions of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Anti-nuclear movement in the United States Nuclear history of the United States Nuclear reactor accidents in the United States Nuclear safety in the United States

v t e Anti-nuclear movement
Protests and groups	Anti-nuclear organizations Anti-nuclear power groups Anti-nuclear protests Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Greenpeace International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons International Day against Nuclear Tests International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Mayors for Peace Nuclear Information and Resource Service Nevada Desert Experience Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign Peace Action and SANE Physicians for Social Responsibility Pembina Institute Sortir du nucléaire World Uranium Hearing
By country	Australia Austria Canada France Germany India Japan Kazakhstan New Zealand Philippines Poland Russia South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Turkey United Kingdom United States
People	Tadatoshi Akiba Daniel Berrigan Albert Bigelow Helen Caldicott Norman Cousins Gordon Edwards Albert Einstein Randall Forsberg John Gofman Jim Green Paul Gunter Otto Hahn Nobuto Hosaka Jackie Hudson Kate Hudson Ole Kopreitan David Lange Amory Lovins Bernard Lown Caroline Lucas Freda Meissner-Blau Gregory Minor Hermann Joseph Muller Kenzaburō Ōe Linus Pauling Mike Pentz C. F. Powell Adi Roche Joseph Rotblat Tilman Ruff Bertrand Russell Jens Scheer Jonathan Schell Albert Schweitzer Christopher Weeramantry
Media	Books about nuclear issues Films about nuclear issues Nuclear holocaust fiction Nuclear weapons in popular culture Songs about nuclear war and weapons
Related topics	Anti-war movement Bikini Atoll Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Defence Secretariat 19 France and weapons of mass destruction Göttingen Manifesto History of the anti-nuclear movement Advisory opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons Lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents Mainau Declaration Nuclear-Free Future Award Nuclear-free zone Nuclear power debate Nuclear power phase-out Nuclear weapons debate Peace activists Otto Hahn Peace Medal Peace movement Peace camp Russell–Einstein Manifesto Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Smiling Sun The Bomb
Category

42°34′34″N 72°31′36″W / 42.576132°N 72.52667°W / 42.576132; -72.52667

See also

References