On September 23, 1979 the Vermont Yankee Decommissioning Alliance called for a nonviolent occupation of the state’s lone nuclear plant. The 179 arrests clogged the state’s court system when most demonstrators refused to post bail (many also gave comical pseudonyms: Renny Cushing gave the name and address of the CEO of the Public Service Company of New Hampshire, one of the plant’s owners). The VYDA soon turned to a community organizing strategy to turn tri-state public opinion against the nuke.
