Author Archive for jack

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[March 24] 17th day of people’s war against blast/ 13 times of blast-the 2nd biggest after March 21

Only a day after March 23 when the Prime Minister Office and Jeju Island government made an agreement to go through layout verification process on the docking capacity of 150,000 ton cruise ships in the so called civilian-military dual use port, though based only on the simulation result analysis by the Ministry of National Defense, the navy enforced blast on the exposed rock parts of the Gureombi-13 times, starting at 3:50pm, March 24.

Activists struggle to remove razor wire and enter naval base construction site. Jejusori.net photo.

by Jack and Felice Cohen-Joppa, the Nuclear Resister

Despite growing condemnation at home and abroad, Korean navy contractors backed by hundreds of special police brought in from the mainland to repress local protest have for the last two weeks been dynamiting the unique volcanic coastline on Jeju Island to prepare the site for construction of a new navy base. The area near Gangjeong village is known as the Gureombi for its rounded rock forms that have long been regarded by locals as sacred. Scores of people – from local residents to church and NGO leaders and international observers – have been arrested, beaten, jailed and some deported during that time.

photo by Felice Cohen-Joppa

On March 21, the last of a group of 13 nuclear disarmament activists arrested at a July 5, 2010 action at the Y-12 nuclear weapons complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee went to court.  David Corcoran was sentenced to 150 hours of community service, a $1000 fine and 2 years of probation.  Three dozen supporters in attendance at the hearing applauded when he walked out of the Chicago courtroom.

The July 2010 action culminated the Resistance for a Nuclear-Free Future gathering, marking the 30th anniversaries of Nukewatch, the Nuclear Resister and the Plowshares Eight.

Information about the gathering and action can be found here.

Locking the Gate, from left, Frances Crowe, Hattie Nestel, Anneke Corbett, Ellen Graves, and Paki Wieland. photo by Marcia Gagliardi

from the Shut it Down affinity group

Seven women of the Shut It Down Affinity Group chained the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant gate shut at about 10 a.m. on Wednesday, March 21, 2012, the power plant’s fortieth birthday and the date it was originally scheduled to close.

The plant’s operating license expired on Wednesday. Entergy Corporation continues the nuclear plant’s function courtesy of a twenty-year extension and the recent decision of federal Judge J. Garvan Murtha, whose order allows the plant to operate despite appeals surrounding lawsuits from concerned citizens who want Vermont Yankee to close.