Nuclear disarmament activists aboard the sailboat Golden Rule are scheduled to make their way through the Cape Cod Canal today and dock in Plymouth Harbor on their way up the East Coast.
The vessel famously sailed toward the Marshall Islands in 1958 hoping to stop nuclear weapons testing. The captain was arrested.
Now revived by Veterans for Peace, the Golden Rule is sailing around the country calling for a nuclear-free world.
Helen Jaccard, project manager for the Golden Rule, said the main mission of the 11,000-mile voyage is to prevent nuclear war, but she views nuclear power as a problem because of the waste and environmental contamination.
“We talk about both nuclear weapons and nuclear energy as … two sides of the same coin,” she said. “When you mine uranium, the contamination from that gets into the soil and the air. And there are 15,000 abandoned uranium mines in 15 western states.”
Jaccard said that even with the latest technology, new nuclear power plants are not a solution to climate change.
“They have the same problems with no place to put the waste,” she said. “But even if they did have a place to put the waste, you still have to deal with, eventually … the concrete will embrittle and crack and break apart.”
The Golden Rule, its red sails emblazoned with peace symbols, is scheduled to transit the Cape Cod Canal between 2 and 3:30 p.m. today.
The boat is a ketch, a type of two-masted sailboat on which the main mast is taller than the mizzen mast — though only slightly so in the case of the Golden Rule. The vessel is 39 feet long, including a long bowsprit, and 30 feet at the water line.
In Plymouth, events to welcome the crew will be led by local activist group Save Our Bay, which is fighting the proposed discharge of radioactive water from the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station into Cape Cod Bay.
Events include a film screening at the Plymouth Public Library, a dinner, visits to the boat, and a rally.
The boat sails Saturday for Boston, where events will be hosted by Massachusetts Peace Action.
