A banner celebrating the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was placed in front of the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge in Maine.
By Martha Spiess
Maine WILPF
March 2021
Maine’s sole nuclear power plant, “Maine Yankee,” operated from 1972-1996. It was shut down due to accidents, excessive costs of design flaw repairs, and due to the efforts of extraordinary citizen activists. The Maine Branch of WILPF US has organized talks and Zoominars to learn more about what led to the decommissioning of this plant. We heard from Capt. Bill Linnell of Maine Safe Energy. We heard from Ray Shadis of Friends of the Coast about the casks of radioactive waste that are stored indefinitely on site in the picturesque town of Wiscasset. We heard from Doug Bogen about the Seabrook Nuclear Power Planta sister plant still in operation on the coast of NH.
The pressing calls for small modular nuclear reactors as a “solution” to the climate crisis are getting louder. We now have concerns about these proposed SMRs and hope to hear from other WILPF chapters about this issue.
We invite you to attend our St. Patrick’s Day Zoominar “Space Force – Who Cares about an Arms Race in Space?” cosponsored with ME Veterans for Peace, Peace Action Maine, and others. The event will be held on March 17 at 12 noon EST, 11 am CST, 9 am PST. Bruce Gagnon will be talking about the Space Force and what Global Network is working on. You can register for the Zoominar here or for more information visit our Facebook page.
We still celebrate our #nuclearban EIN Banner Caravan Campaign/project which began at the home of WILPF Maine member Christine DeTroy and now has visited the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge (see photo above). Rachel Carson is one of Maine’s most celebrated environmentalistswriting Silent Spring at the time when nuclear waste was dumped overboard in concrete-lined barrels. FMI: message us via FB.
