nuclear weapons Archives - Oak Ridge Today

Y-12 protester case goes to jury this afternoon

May 8, 2013 By John Huotari 1 Comment

Pictured above are the three anti-nuclear weapons protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28. From left, they are Michael Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed.

Note: This story was last updated at 12:51 p.m.

KNOXVILLE—The case against three anti-nuclear weapons activists who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex in July and vandalized a uranium storage building could go to a jury this afternoon.

The government rested its case yesterday, and the defense rested this morning after the three defendants—Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli—testified.

The three acknowledge sneaking into Y-12 on July 28, cutting through high-security fences, and pouring blood and spray-painting biblical passages on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, where most of the nation’s bomb-grade uranium is stored. But they say they were religiously motivated and peacefully protesting the plant’s nuclear weapons work, symbolically disarming the 811-acre plant. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Federal, Government, National Nuclear Security Administration, Police and Fire, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy, Y-12 National Security Complex, Y-12 Security Breach Tagged With: Amul Thapar, Greg Boertje-Obed, Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, Megan Rice, Michael Walli, nuclear weapons, property depredation, security breach, Transform Now Plowshares, U.S. District Court, willfully injuring the national defense, Y-12 National Security Complex

Guest column: Did God initiate the invention of the atomic bomb?

May 5, 2013 By Myra Mansfield 1 Comment

Pictured above are the three anti-nuclear weapons protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28. From left, they are Michael Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed.

I hear the siren. It’s noon on May 1, the first Wednesday of the month. What a coincidence, as I sit at my computer reading the Washington Post article “The Prophets of Oak Ridge.” It mentions that siren and reveals the circumstances of the Y-12 security system breach last year. The article links Oak Ridge’s first known prophet, John Hendrix to the nun, painter, and drifter who made national news.

I think to myself, “God WAS responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb….and there ARE real prophets in Oak Ridge – still today!”

“What?” your mind must be responding, as you wonder how I could think such a thing. Well, if you’ll stick with me, you’ll see the path to my conclusion. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Faith Tagged With: Adolf Hitler, atomic bomb, Bible, breach, Christ, God, Jewish people, John Hendrix, John Hendrix Memorial Prayer Walk, Myra Mansfield, nuclear weapons, Oak Ridge, prophet, Sister Megan, The Prophets of Oak Ridge, violence, war, Washington Post, weapons, WWII, Y-12 security

Cleanup work shifts to mercury as new Y-12 water treatment plant announced

May 3, 2013 By John Huotari Leave a Comment

State and federal officials announce a plant to treat mercury-contaminated water at the Y-12 National Security Complex. Pictured from left are Mark Whitney, Robert Martineau, Lamar Alexander, Dave Huizenga, and Stan Meiburg.

Cleanup work in Oak Ridge could shift from radiological contamination to mercury contamination, and a new $120 million water treatment plant at the Y-12 National Security Complex will help reduce mercury as workers tear down four contaminated buildings that were used to make nuclear weapons in the 1950s and 1960s, officials announced Friday.

“This water treatment plant is a major step in addressing one of the biggest problems we have from the Cold War era—mercury once used to make nuclear weapons getting into our waterways,” said U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican. He said mercury contamination can cause brain and nervous system damage in people who eat contaminated fish.

Alexander was at Y-12 on Friday along with other federal and state officials to help announce the new water treatment plant, which will be at the head of East Fork Poplar Creek on the south side of Y-12′s main production area. The plant would be connected to a Y-12 storm water system, and it could begin operating in 2019. It would be able to treat 1,500 gallons of mercury-contaminated water per minute. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Oak Ridge Office, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy, Y-12 National Security Complex Tagged With: cleanup, David Huizenga, East Fork Poplar Creek, environmental cleanup, environmental management, impaired waterways, Lamar Alexander, lithium, Mark Whitney, mercury, mercury contamination, mercury-contaminated water, nuclear weapons, Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge Office, Oak Ridge Reservation, radiological contamination, remediation, Robert J. Martineau Jr., Stan Meiburg, Susan Cange, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, U.S. Department of Energy, water quality, water treatment plant, Y-12 National Security Complex

Y-12 protesters submit witness list, want extra time for jury questioning

April 18, 2013 By John Huotari 1 Comment

Pictured above at U.S. District Court in Knoxville are the three anti-nuclear weapons protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28. From left, they are Michael Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed.

The three protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex in July want to call a retired bishop, a doctor, a former U.S. attorney general, a civil rights leader, and a retired military officer and diplomat as witnesses in a Tuesday hearing and May 7 trial in Knoxville.

The proposed witnesses include former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, civil rights sit-in participant Robert Booker, doctor Ira Helfand, retired Col. Mary Annette Wright, and retired U.S. Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton.

The three protesters—Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli—also want six hours, and not 1.5, to question prospective jurors for their May 7 trial in U.S. District Court. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Federal, Government, Police and Fire, Top Stories, Y-12 National Security Complex, Y-12 Security Breach Tagged With: Greg Boertje-Obed, hearing, Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, Ira Helfand, jury, Mary Annette Wright, Megan Rice, Michael Walli, national defense, nuclear war, nuclear weapons, Oak Ridge Reservation, Ramsey Clark, Robert Booker, security, security breach, thermonuclear warheads, Thomas Gumbleton, trial, U.S. District Court, Y-12 National Security Complex

Alexander questions energy secretary nominee about Oak Ridge mercury cleanup

April 10, 2013 By John Huotari 2 Comments

Lamar Alexander

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander on Tuesday questioned energy secretary nominee Ernest Moniz on whether the cleanup of mercury contamination in Oak Ridge would be a priority under his leadership, a press release said.

“One of the biggest cleanup problems we have from the Cold War era is mercury contamination of waterways in Oak Ridge,” said Alexander, a Tennessee Republican.

The release said Alexander also asked Moniz to support a planned water treatment facility.

Alexander was referring to about 200,000 gallons of mercury that arrived at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge during the 1950s and 1960s, when the United States was developing nuclear weapons as a defense against the Soviet Union. Alexander said it will cost billions of dollars to clean it up. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Federal, Government, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy, Y-12 National Security Complex Tagged With: cleanup, Cold War, East Fork Poplar Creek, Energy and Natural Resources Committee, energy secretary nominee, Lamar Alexander, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, mercury, mercury contamination, nuclear weapons, Oak Ridge, physicist, secretary, Steven Chu, U.S. Department of Energy, water treatment plant, waterways, Y-12 National Security Complex

Manhattan Project national park bill also reintroduced in U.S. House

March 15, 2013 By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Now mostly demolished, the former mile-long, U-shaped K-25 Building is pictured above. The site has previously been identified for possible inclusion in a Manhattan Project National Historical Park. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy)

A bill to set up a Manhattan Project national park that would include Oak Ridge has been reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The bipartisan legislation was reintroduced on Friday in the U.S. House by Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, a Washington Republican; Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a Tennessee Republican; and Rep. Ben Luján, a New Mexico Democrat.

The legislation—H.R. 1208—would establish a Manhattan Project National Historical Park that would include facilities in Oak Ridge; Hanford, Wash.; and Los Alamos, N.M.

President Truman’s grandson to discuss decision to bomb Japan in World War II

March 12, 2013 By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Clifton Truman Daniel

In a speech later this month, the oldest grandson of former president Harry S. Truman will discuss his grandfather’s decision to use the world’s first atomic weapons at the end of World War II, a momentous decision that depended, at least in part, on work done in Oak Ridge.

Clifton Truman Daniel will also share insights about his grandfather’s life after Truman left the White House, and Daniel will discuss a family trip to Japan in 2012 for the 67th anniversary of the World War II bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.

Daniel will be in Oak Ridge on Thursday, March 28. His speech is hosted by the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. It’s open to the public, and tickets are $20.

Opposed to nuclear weapons work, Y-12 protesters refused to plead guilty

December 8, 2012 By John Huotari 1 Comment

The Fruit of Justice is Peace Slogan on HEUMF at Y-12

Three anti-nuclear weapons activists who sneaked into the Y-12 National Security Complex on July 28 allegedly splashed human blood and, quoting Proverbs, sprayed paint on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility. The protesters also hammered the building, causing it to chip, and strung up crime scene tape. (Submitted photo)

The three protesters who vandalized a uranium storage building at Y-12 National Security Complex in July said they would not accept a plea deal from the federal government earlier this year, even though prosecutors threatened to charge them with more serious sabotage crimes.

“We chose to exercise our constitutional right to a jury trial and refused to bow down to their threats,” the trio said in a statement released Wednesday. “We remain convinced that making and refurbishing nuclear weapons at Y-12 is both illegal under U.S. and international law, and it is also immoral. Ultimately, we are required to follow the law of love and our consciences.”

Calling themselves Transform Now Plowshares, the three protesters—Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli— allegedly cut through fences at Y-12 before dawn on Saturday, July 28, entered a high-security area where deadly force is authorized, and splashed human blood and spray-painted slogans on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, where bomb-grade uranium is stored.

On Tuesday, a federal grand jury in Knoxville returned a new charge against the trio for this summer’s unprecedented intrusion. The new count of injuring national-defense premises carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years, longer than any of the earlier potential penalties.

NNSA exceeds nuclear weapons dismantlement goal

December 3, 2012 By John Huotari 3 Comments

The National Nuclear Security Administration announced today that it exceeded its goal for dismantling nuclear weapons in the federal fiscal year that ended in September.

In a press release, the NNSA said it had reached 112 percent of its goal, although it didn’t give specific information on the number of dismantled weapons.

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge is one of the NNSA sites involved in the dismantlement work.

Y-12 protesters allegedly enter high-security area, spray paint, splash blood

July 28, 2012 By John Huotari 3 Comments

Three activists opposed to nuclear weapons pose with banners before their reported arrests on Saturday. From left to right, the three are Michael R. Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed. (Submitted photo)

Note: This story was last updated at 6:40 p.m. July 29.

Three Plowshares protesters who oppose nuclear weapons allegedly sneaked through four fences at the Y-12 National Security Complex before dawn Saturday and spray-painted messages and splashed human blood on the walls of a uranium storage building before they were detained by security guards, an activist said.

The three were identified by supporters as Michael R. Walli, 63, of Washington, D.C.; Megan Rice, 82, of New York; and Greg Boertje-Obed, 57, of Duluth, Minn.

They are now in the Blount County Corrections Facility, said Ellen Barfield, of Baltimore, Md., who said she is a longtime anti-war and anti-nuclear weapons activist and friend of the three detainees.

Federal spokesman Steven Wyatt wasn’t able to confirm the identity of those arrested, but he said they entered a high-security area on the west end of Y-12—the Protected Area—at about 4:30 a.m. Saturday, spray-painted a building there, and splashed a substance that appeared to be like blood on a wall.

It could be the first security breach of that area, Wyatt said.

“I don’t ever recall this happening before at Y-12,” he said.