Looking into the future the Pelican feeding its young from a self-induced wound in its own breast (as depicted, mysteriously, on the state flag of Louisiana) is accepted as an appropriate symbol of both self-sacrifice and rebirth. Through his selfless efforts, man is raised from the slavery of ignorance to the condition of freedom conferred by wisdom. Given the current state of affairs in Louisiana, one hopes that the understanding of the Pelican as a symbol shall point the way towards a new consciousness of ourselves as a whole, and lead us to face our futures with strength, grace, wisdom and faith, to learn from our mistakes and carry our successes and zest for living to future generations.

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History of the Oppostion Towards the Waterford III Nuclear Power Plant

The Waterford III nuclear power plant is located on the Mississippi River near Taft, Louisiana. This plant is located 25 miles west of New Orleans, 50 miles southeast of Baton Rouge and 13 miles from Kenner, Louisiana. This area, stretching from Baton Rogue to New Orleans, is known as ‘Cancer Alley’ because it has one of the highest rates of stomach and lung cancer in the country. It should be noted that industrial chemical plants, which are known to release carcinogens into the surrounding air and water, dominate this area. In the past accidental explosions have occurred at some of these chemical plants. Such past accidents demonstrate just how important a proper evacuation plan could be for residents of the area in the event of an industrial accident at any one of these plants. This area is also a prime example of environmental racism; where large chemical companies have chosen and been allowed to build dangerous industrial plants in small, poor, minority communities. Check here more specific information on the Waterford III Nuclear Power Plant.

See also: Nuclear Power Not Clean, Green or Safe

This is a history of some of the people who attempted to stop the construction and operation of the Waterford III nuclear power plant. In the face of this opposition the Waterford III nuclear power plant was constructed by Louisiana Power and Light Company (LP&L) in the 70’s, licensed for operation in the 80’s and today is operated by the energy conglomerate Entergy.

Background of the Activist Community During the Time of Robert Head's Intervention Before the AEC

In the French Quarter of New Orleans in the early 1970’s Robert Head was editor of the underground weekly newspaper entitled NOLA Express. This paper was an information tool against the United States illegal and immoral involvement in the Vietnam War and was also an alternate source of information outside of the corporate owned Times-Picayune and States-Item. The New Orleans police department sought to squash this newspaper and the activist movement. The NOPD arrested vendors for selling the paper on the streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans. An Attorney named Kendall Vick and the ACLU were able to get these arrests overturned under the 1st amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects the freedom of the press, by U.S. District Court Judge Herbert Christenberry.

At this time the strong activist movement in the French Quarter of New Orleans was also promoting community health care and alternative energy. The French Quarter of New Orleans during this time was a community of committed residents, but the establishment was committed to destroying this community.

For example, on Veterans Day a group of Vietnam Veterans Against the War attempted to march peacefully in exercise of their constitutional rights. NOPD Superintendent Clarence Giarusso had all 36 veterans arrested. But the New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, who is featured in Oliver Stone's JFK, had all of the charges against the 36 veterans dropped. Garrison today is considered by some to be one of the most patriotic Americans ever to live for exposing the fact that the CIA assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

For example, during the time, New Orleans civil rights attorney Ben Smith, in 1970 ran as an anti Vietnam candidate for US Congress against incumbent Hale Boggs, there was an American flag burning incident by an NOPD undercover agent. Immediately after Ben Smith gave an anti Vietnam speech on the steps of New Orleans city hall, this NOPD undercover officer jumped up and set fire to an American flag. This caused a disruption of the peace march and demonstration. The next day the New Orleans Times Picayune newspaper put the burning flag incident on the front page of their newspaper. The Times Picayune emphasized and attempted to show that the protesters against the Vietnam War were vehemently anti-American, but the reality of the matter was that the peace march, which was organized by Tulane and Loyola University students were totally peaceful and very much American. The NOPD undercover police officer, by burning the American flag captured the corporate controlled media and press.

Michael Stark was a graduate and minister of the Baptist theological seminary in New Orleans East. He opened a free health clinic, named the 'Head Free Clinic', on Decatur St. in the French Quarter. The NOPD arrested Mike Stark and patients of the clinic. There was also a temple on Ursuline St. in the French Quarter called Maitreyan. Members of this temple would meet and have drumming and dance sessions. The police raided this temple arrested and beat people. The end result of all of these community activities were thousands of people assembling and marching in anti-Vietnam War protests and also against the proposed Waterford Nuclear Power Plant.

Click here to see more protest photos.

At the time there were also underground FM radio stations announcing community activities and protests against the U.S. military industrial complex. There was also a concert hall called the Warehouse at 1820 Tchoupitoulas close to the Mississippi River in the industrial uptown section of New Orleans. At the Warehouse there were music concerts involving people with long hair and alternative views opposite of the corporate military industrial complex. Musical counter-culture icons such as the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Bob Dylan, and Pink Floyd played at the Warehouse. There were also arrests by the NOPD of people attending these concerts at the Warehouse. Curiously enough, the Grateful Dead band members themselves were arrested in their Bourbon Street hotel room during their stay in New Orleans after performing at The Warehouse. The arrest was immortalized in the well known Grateful Dead song, 'Truckin':

"...Sitting and staring out of the hotel window Got a tip they're gonna kick the door in again Like to get some sleep before I travel But if you got a warrant I guess you're gonna come in

Busted down on Bourbon Street Set like a bowling pin Knocked down, it gets to wearing thin They just won't let you be..."

The Construction Permit

This story begins in 1972. In 1972 Robert Head, the editor-publisher of an underground newspaper named NOLA Express, came to Save Our Wetlands, Inc. (SOWL) to discuss intervening before the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), on LP&L’s request to obtain a construction permit for their Waterford III Nuclear Power Plant. At this time, SOWL was heavily involved in anti-Vietnam War protests, but was not involved in nuclear power issues, because her members believed what the nuclear power industry wanted everyone to believe, namely that nuclear power was cheap, safe, and necessary.

In the midst of all of this federal authorities arrested Robert Head. The reason for his arrest was that the NOLA Express, the newspaper he edited, published a photograph of a naked man. He was thrown in jail for pornography by the federal authorities. U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Rubin, based on the U.S. constitution guaranteeing freedom of press, dismissed these charges. However this was the straw that broke the camels back for Robert Head. He left New Orleans for the forest of West Virginia along with his girlfriend Darlene Fike. The AEC granted LP&L the construction permit for their Waterford nuclear power plant. But, Robert Head and David Comey exposed the AEC’s lies and deceits to the New Orleans community.

Going Into the 1980’s

LP&L in the 1980’s finished the construction of their Waterford nuclear power plant. Under the law, they were now required to obtain their operation permit. However, a number of things had occurred that were disaster to the nuclear industry from the late 1970’s to 1984 when LP&L sought to obtain their operation permit. There were a series of nuclear power plant accidents -- mainly Chernobyl in Russia, Three Mile Island in Harrisburg Pennsylvania, and an incident in Detroit Michigan. Also the AEC had been exposed as not regulating the nuclear industry as required under the law, but was rather blindly promoting and subsidizing it. It was also exposed that many top officers and directors of the nuclear industry were in fact members of the AEC. The end result was not that the AEC changed. They only changed their name. They changed the veil. Rather than AEC they became Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and it was business as usual. Finally, a movie came out called China Syndrome starring Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon. This movie exposed to the American public the consequences of a nuclear core meltdown in America. The end result of all of this was a tremendous backlash against nuclear power in the U.S.

New Orleans in 1984

During the time of the operation permit request, New Orleans is sponsoring the 1984 World’s Fair. The theme of this World’s Fair is “Fresh Water as a Source of Life”. At the time SOWL produces a film entitled 'Nuking New Orleans', and exposes the hypocrisy of this theme. Here is what the founder of SOWL Francois Jelalian had to say concerning the Waterford III nuclear power plant and the 1984 World’s Fair.

In the midst of all of this backlash by the American public against nuclear power comes LP&L’s request for an operation permit for their Waterford nuclear power plant in Taft, Louisiana. And also comes a new leader of New Orleans raising a powerful voice against this Waterford nuclear power plant. His name is Gary Groesch, and he is not a hippy and he is not the editor of an underground newspaper. He is the director of a well-respected group in New Orleans called the Alliance for Affordable Energy. Gary Groesch has much to say. Here are some of his words.

The Operation Permit

In the 1980’s, the late Gary Groesch founder of Citizens for Safe Energy and director of The Alliance for Affordable Energy, came to SOWL, seeking help to obtain intervener status, before LP&P’s operation permit request for their Waterford III nuclear power plant. Intervention papers were filed on behalf of Citizens for Safe Energy, a group called Oyster Shell Alliance and SOWL on LP&L’s request for an operation permit for their Waterford III nuclear power plant. The Oyster Shell Alliance was able to produce thousands of protesters marching against the Waterford nuclear power plant. There was also heavy NOPD and corporate police surviellance of the peaceful and legal Oyster Shell Alliance demonstrations. SOWL was able to photograph this police surviellance.

As a result of this intervention, construction defects in the emergency core cooling system, and the lack of quality assurance of this nuclear power plant were exposed. There were no proper evacuation plans in case of a fuel core meltdown at Waterford. As a result of these over sites and potential dangers Gary Groesch labeled Waterford III as the most dangerous nuclear power plant in the country.

SOWL also represented Ellis Gaspard and the U.S. Atomic Veterans. The U.S. Atomic Veterans were a group of American military veterans that were used as human test subjects in atomic fallout experiments in the Nevada desert in the 1950’s. During these experiments, young enlisted men were made to stand in the desert several miles from the epicenter of a nuclear bomb blast, wearing nothing but their military uniforms. They were then made to march into the fallout of these blasts.

They were given literature prior to this exercise, which assured them that the U.S. government was not putting them in harms way. The reality was that the AEC had information, indicating that nuclear radiation was in fact dangerous to humans, and by extension dangerous to the GIs they knowingly marched directly into nuclear fallout. As further evidence that the AEC knew full well, the dangerous that it was placing these enlisted men into, all AEC employees present at these experiments wore protective clothing. But because the American GIs were told that protective clothing was not necessary, they had nothing on but khaki uniforms. After the American GIs were marched into the fallout, their clothing was not even washed or taken away from them. And now of course, these American GIs were dying years later of leukemia and various other forms of cancer.

SOWL filed a lawsuit in federal court requesting damages for Mrs. Gaspard under the U.S. Federal Tort Claims Act. SOWL proved that the U.S. military and AEC had information that what they were doing was dangerous to American GIs, and that they knowingly told American GIs exactly the opposite. SOWL obtain a copy of the congressional investigation, proving that the American GIs were used as human guinea pigs. Mr. Gaspard was dying of leukemia as a result of this experimentation by the AEC. However, the Federal Court dismissed Gaspard’s claim, stating that members of the United States military relinquish their constitutional rights when they enlist.

Now in the administrative processing before the NCR in regards to LP&L’s operation permit for their Waterford nuclear power plant, SOWL attempted to introduce the congressional report, labeling the AEC’s activities against American GIs as "human guinea pig experimentation". SOWL’s purpose in presenting this congressional report was to identify and label the AEC and now the NRC, as a non-objective governmental body that placed its interests above the welfare of the American people. SOWL in the administrative record introduced the congressional report and accused the AEC and the NRC of “genocide.”

Something very interesting happens here. The official administrative record printed up by the NRC has SOWL accusing them of “genussi”. This is a good example of how the NRC operates. SOWL eventually goes back in one of the administrative hearings and corrects their spelling over the great objection and consternation of Harry Forman the chairman of the NRC. Also Mr. Gaspard’s wife gives very tearful testimony at the construction permit hearings.

During the hearing on the operation permit, the president of Loyola University Father James Carter testifies in support of nuclear power and the NRC. He does this is spite of the public outcry against the issuance of this operation permit. SOWL finds this shocking and hypocritical so she writes Pope Paul VI in objection. Stating that a Catholic priest should not be condoning and promoting the use of nuclear power because of its obvious dangers.

The activist community once again marches in protest to nuclear power. The largest demonstration every held in the history of New Orleans marches down St. Charles Ave. and into Audubon Park in protest of nuclear power. There are also protests held in the black community of Taft Louisiana where this plant will be situated. Oyster Shell Alliance becomes a powerful voice against nuclear power in the community. The police setup an informer within the Oyster Shell Alliance. This informer goes to dinner where Oyster Shell Alliance members are living. He becomes friends with them. After gaining their confidence, this informer then asks if he can have a tab of LSD from one of the members. The member complies. Afterwards the NOPD raids the house and arrests the directors of the Oyster Shell Alliance. They also confiscate the Oyster Shell Alliance mailing list and this causes the collapse of the Oyster Shell Alliance.

Conclusions

The public might wonder why we did what we did when today it seems so fruitless and useless. Going back to the 1970s there was definitely a sense of hope. It is true that they had killed JFK, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, and Malcolm X but there was still hope. Many of us felt that we could reverse a government from a military industrial complex into a technology that would preserve and sustain future generations. This technology would take place in the form of solar, wind, and conservation of energy. Like the Donovan song “who is to say its no good, what we have done, what we have done”. And now as this is written in the year 2004 we have a president who has stolen an election, wages pre-emptive wars, and dismantles environmental laws. We have a legislative energy policy of oil, gas, and nuclear power pushed by corporate puppets like Billy Tauzin, Pete Domenici, corporate puppet-master former U.S. Senator Bennnet Johnston, and U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu. We can only write what the past was with some little bit of hope that future generations with the knowledge obtained might do better. The corporations rule and our government is a lie. George Orwell said, “he who controls the past controls the present, he who controls the present controls the future.” We do the act because it is a good act; you can only try to do good. Unfortunately the warnings and predictions of Gary Groesch are coming true.