Oak Ridge peace group has vigil today despite plans for fence at Y-12

The government’s decision to erect a new fence in front of the Y-12 National Security Complex could affect plans for an annual spring demonstration next Saturday, but the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance announced it will have its weekly Sunday vigil today.

The group said the decision by the National Nuclear Security Administration to close off the area immediately outside the Y-12 gates at the intersection of East Bear Creek and Scarboro Roads is “aimed at preventing demonstrations and peace vigils by the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance and others.”

OREPA Coordinator Ralph Hutchison has said the nonprofit group, which opposes the nuclear weapons work at Y-12, has met near the sign at the front gate for peace vigils, public demonstrations, and educational presentations for 25 years. That makes the space a public forum that enjoys particular protections under the U.S. Constitution, he said.

“The Constitution says every citizen of the United States has certain rights the government can not take away,” Hutchison said in a statement Saturday. “And some of the most precious are in the First Amendment to the Constitution. These include the right to free speech and the right to peaceable assembly to petition the government. We have gathered for nearly 700 Sundays in Oak Ridge, and this Sunday will be no exception.”

In its announcement last week, the NNSA said it proposed the fence after three trespassing incidents involving five people in the past year.

“Events of the past several months have shown that there is a greater threat of trespassing on the site, and the costs for responding to this threat are increasing,” the NNSA said in a Thursday afternoon press release. ”Y-12 is taking conservative and appropriate measures to make such illegal actions more difficult.”

Today’s weekly vigil starts at 5 p.m. Hutchison said those gatherings have taken place every Sunday evening for more than 13 years.

Last week, he said OREPA is exploring legal options to challenge the fence, which would run close to Scarboro Road from Bear Creek Road to New Hope Road, also enclosing the New Hope Center.

Hutchison said courts have ruled that citizens have a right to assemble peaceably in spaces that are determined to be a public forum.

“Our rights are precious,” he said. “They exist on paper and in theory, but they don’t really exist until we exercise them. For the NNSA to attempt to squelch our free speech is outrageous—for years we have been told the whole reason for the bombs they make in Oak Ridge was to protect our freedom. If this were not a serious attack on our First Amendment rights, the irony would be delicious.”

NNSA spokesman Steven Wyatt has declined to comment on any legal action OREPA might take.

OREPA objected to the NNSA’s announcement that the group could apply to use the New Hope Center, which is often used for public events. That space is less visible, and it would require OREPA to request permission, pay fees, and secure insurance, Hutchison said.

“In 25 years, we have never had an incidence of violence,” Hutchison said. “There has never been even the slightest hint of a threat to the bomb plant. Our goal has always been to create the public record of opposition to weapons of mass destruction, to witness for peace and life, and to call the United States to live up to its promise under the Nonproliferation Treaty. Now, they can’t bear to let us speak; they want to move us away from the public eye, put us behind a fence, and charge us a fee. They say it is in the name of security, but their motives are transparent. They want to stifle free speech, or at least render it ineffective.”