The breach of a high-security area at the Y-12 National Security Complex by the three anti-nuclear weapons activists pictured above has not changed plans to cut up to 34 security officers. From left to right, the three are Michael R. Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed.
The plan to cut up to 34 security police officer jobs at the Y-12 National Security Complex hasn’t changed, despite a breach of a high-security area early Saturday morning by three anti-nuclear weapons activists, a federal spokesman said Wednesday.
Steven Wyatt, spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, said the decision is not being re-evaluated.
“The size of the protective force is determined through a comprehensive process that considers a number of factors, which have not changed since the decision to reduce the size of the protective forces was made,” Wyatt said in a Wednesday evening e-mail.
The plan, which also calls for the reduction of three staff positions at Y-12 and more cuts at the East Tennessee Technology Park, was developed after reviews by the NNSA, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office, and security contractor WSI Oak Ridge.
WSI employees at Y-12 and ETTP will be offered a voluntary separation program, or VSP, and applications will be accepted until Friday, WSI Oak Ridge said in a recent statement. Those who are accepted will work through Sept. 28.
In the statement, WSI Oak Ridge Public Affairs Manager Courtney Henry said the staff reductions would not affect security at Oak Ridge facilities “due to dramatic improvements in physical security that have been completed in recent years at Y-12 and to changes in mission at ORO.”
Henry declined to comment Monday, referring questions to Wyatt.
On Wednesday, B&W Y-12, the management and operating contractor at Y-12, ordered a security stand down at the plant, meaning all nuclear operations have been halted through sometime next week.
That decision follows the Saturday morning security breach and the discovery of unidentified procedural violations at Y-12. The security breach involved three anti-nuclear weapons activists who allegedly sneaked through fences at the plant and spray-painted slogans and splashed human blood on a high-security uranium storage building before they were detained by security guards.
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