James A. Merrill Jr.
Biography
James A. Merrill Jr. was a control-room operator trainee at Virginia Electric and Power Company’s Surry nuclear plant. After raising safety and security concerns, he and coworker William E. Kuykendall poured sodium hydroxide on 62 unused fuel assemblies on April 27, 1979 to demonstrate the plant’s vulnerability. They surrendered on June 19, were convicted of damaging public-utility equipment, and received two-year sentences. Merrill entered custody in October 1980 and was released on August 28, 1981.
Full-name identification and date limits
The original Supreme Court 1980 Journal, physical page 83 / printed page 71, lists No. 80-5180, William Everett Kuykendall and James Alfred Merrill, Jr. v. Virginia. This independently identifies Merrill's full middle name. October 6, 1980 is denial of their certiorari petition, not a prison-admission day. The existing October 1980 admission retains MONTH precision; its first-day placeholder is not promoted to an exact endpoint. Original Supreme Court Journal, printed page 71.
The original NRC November 9, 1979 supplemental notice independently names James A. Merrill, Jr. with William E. Kuykendall, records their June 19 surrender and the October 17 jury verdict and punishment. It does not document the later judge-sentencing or prison-admission day. A jury's punishment determination, the judge's sentencing and actual admission are not silently conflated. A contemporary news-photo lead could not be recovered through ordinary access, so no namesake image or reconstructed photograph is added. Original NRC notice.
Original case-record clarification
NRC Information Notice 79-12A, dated November 9, 1979, records the June 19 surrender and October 17 jury verdict for intentional damage to an electric-service facility under Virginia Code 18.2-162. The judge dismissed the conspiracy, breaking-and-entering and misdemeanor-damage charges for insufficient evidence; the jury fixed punishment at two years. Those events are distinct from the later formal sentencing and October 1980 prison admission already recorded. The notice does not supply an actual release date.
Contemporary confirmation of actual Surry release
The original December 12, 1981 newsletter, page 2, separately identifies Jim Merrill and Bill Kuykendall in the Surry nuclear-plant case and explicitly reports that Jim Merrill was actually released on August 28, 1981. This is completed-release wording, not a projected discharge or court-decision date, and independently corroborates the endpoint already stored here. The report says they began serving their two-year sentences in fall 1980 but does not supply an exact admission day. That seasonal account does not upgrade the existing October MONTH-precision admission or establish a precise served-day counter. The article recounts Bill’s post-release chaplain-assistant work and differing parole-contact conditions; those conditions are not continued physical imprisonment. The formal-sentencing-date question remains separate.
National No-Nukes Prison Support Collective newsletter No. 9, December 12, 1981, original page 2.
