As protestors gather in Brattleboro to make a statement about Vermont Yankee at the corporate headquarters of Entergy, the nuclear plant's owner, a group has been arrested on March 22 for trespass at the company's corporate headquarters in New Orleans.
According to a press relase from the Safe and Green Energy (SAGE) Alliance, Nancy Braus, of Putney, and seven other antinuclear activists “taped off a corporate 'crime scene' at the downtown Entergy building, demanding an audience with Entergy, CEO, J. Wayne Leonard.”
“The request was not granted,” the press release said.
“Our simple trespass is our statement of resistance to Entergy's corporate trespass with the continued illegal operation of this nuclear waste factory,” said Braus, who owns Everyone's Books in Brattleboro.
Those arrested were released and plan to resume the protest, this time on the sidewalk outside the headquarters, on Saturday, March 24.
According to a press release from Beyond Nuclear, “March 24 marks a national day of action in solidarity with Vermont to 'Freeze our Fukushimas,' a campaign to freeze operation at all 23 operating U.S. Mark I reactors.”
Those facilities share the same containment design as Fukushima Daiichi.
The SAGE Alliance also noted that five Vermont activists were arrested on March 22 during a similar non-violent protest action at the Entergy Nuclear Northeast regional headquarters in White Plains, N.Y., near Entergy's Indian Point Energy Center nuclear station in Buchanan, N.Y.
Seven women protesters chained the gates at VY in Vernon on March 21 as Buddhist monks and others chanted and sang.
In addition to Braus, six people from New Hampshire - Renny Cuhing, Lynn Chong, Ben Chichester, Kendra Ulrich, Jeff Brummer, and Nelia Sargent - were arrested, as was Paul Gunter from Maryland.
According to the SAGE Alliance, “It was expected that they would spend 24 hours in jail before being arraigned.”