25 years later, Seabrook remains pivotal in nuclear debate

SEABROOK, N.H. —The Seabrook Station nuclear power plant was conceived during the turbulent 1970s and was under construction when accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl stoked fears of a global nuclear calamity.

Twenty-five years after Seabrook began commercial operations, the plant perches in a marsh on New Hampshire’s sliver of a seacoast, steadily producing electricity and still stirring plenty of emotions among opponents and supporters whose clashes made Seabrook the face of the national debate over nuclear energy.

And both sides still claim victory. The plant got built, utility officials said. Opponents counter that only half the plant got built and the country stopped building new ones for more than two decades.

“It was certainly an enormous struggle,” said Ted Feigenbaum, a former executive vice president at the plant from 1986-2002. “It was so vital to the nuclear industry.”

And vital to nuclear opponents, too.

“The concern of activists made things like Three Mile Island a major event, not a back-page event,” said Roy Morrison, an energy consultant who got arrested during protests in the 1980s. “When something like Chernobyl, or Fukushima – a global event – happens, there’s more global resistance.”

Seabrook’s history began nearly five decades ago when the Public Service Company of New Hampshire – now Eversource – announced in May 1968 that it would build a nuclear plant in Newington. The site was later changed to Seabrook before the project was shelved in 1969, mostly for financial reasons.Read full article at WCVB 5