Vehement, widespread opposition accompanied the rise of the U.S.
nuclear industry during the 1960s and 1970s. In ""Conservation
Fallout"", John Wills examines one of the most controversial atomic
projects of the period: Pacific Gas and Electric Company's decision
to build its premier nuclear power plant at Diablo Canyon, a
relatively unsettled, biologically rich, and especially scenic part
of the central California coastline. Two competing visions of
California emerged while the plant underwent construction.
Environmentalists used Diablo as a symbol of impending ecological
doomsday, while PG&E envisioned it as the model that would
usher in a new age of energy production. The Sierra Club almost
disbanded over whether to condone or protest the reactor project.
Divisions also emerged in the local community as residents and
politicians, enticed by the promise of cheap electricity and
lucrative tax revenues, found themselves pitted against others who
feared the dangers of radiation in their own backyards. The
controversy intensified when a fault line was discovered within
three miles of the plant. Grassroots groups The Mothers for Peace,
a local women's group, and The Abalone Alliance, a statewide
nonviolent direct-action organization, did their utmost to stop the
plant from going on-line. In 1979, an Alliance rally in San
Francisco attracted 25,000 people, while 40,000 others gathered in
San Luis Obispo. During a two-week-long blockade of the Diablo
plant in 1981, over 1,900 activists were jailed, the largest arrest
in the history of American antinuclear protest. Despite its
significance in the history of twentieth-century environmental
issues and the continuing debate over the safety of nuclear power,
the full story of Diablo Canyon has not been told until now. Wills
bases his account on extensive interviews with the individuals
involved, as well as on the archives of the Sierra Club, several
protest organizations, public agencies, PG&E, and others. The
result is an engaging, balanced examination of nuclear politics in
California. By focusing on one of the last wild places in the state
and its transformation into a major technological center, and on
the evolution and strategies of the little-studied grassroots
protest groups determined to protect California and resist the
spread of nuclear technology, Wills has made a major contribution
to our understanding of America's nuclear age.
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