Oak Ridge Today

Peace group wants fence removed from longtime Y-12 protest area

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Y-12 Fence on Scarboro Road

The temporary fence erected at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex encloses an area, pictured above, that has been used for protests and vigils for years. An Oak Ridge organization that wants to eradicate nuclear weapons has asked a federal court to order the removal of the fence before an Aug. 6 ceremony.

Calling it an assault on their First Amendment rights, an Oak Ridge organization has again asked a federal court to order officials to remove a fence that blocks an area long used for protests, vigils, and demonstrations in front of the Y-12 National Security Complex.

The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, which opposes Y-12’s nuclear weapons production work, filed the preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court in Knoxville on Friday. The lawsuit, which amends a complaint filed in April, names new U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz as the sole defendant.

OREPA wants the U.S. Department of Energy to reopen a small grass field near Y-12’s main entrance at East Bear Creek and Scarboro roads before an annual Aug. 6 demonstration. If it is left in place, the temporary fence erected April 1 would cause “irreparable harm” to First Amendment rights—including the rights of free speech, peaceful assembly, and the ability to petition the government for a redress of grievances, OREPA said. [Read more…]

OREPA celebrates world court opinion on nuclear weapons on Sunday at Y-12

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OREPA Spring Demonstration at Y-12

Members of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance and supporters gather across from the Y-12 National Security Complex to protest the plant’s proposed Uranium Processing Facility in April. OREPA will read a 1996 world court opinion on nuclear weapons during a Sunday vigil.

An Oak Ridge organization that opposes the nuclear weapons production work at the Y-12 National Security Complex has organized a Sunday reading of a world court opinion on the legality of the use, or threat of use, of nuclear weapons.

Open to the public, the reading will be part of a 5 p.m. weekly Sunday vigil at the main entrance to Y-12 at East Bear Creek and Scarboro roads. [Read more…]

More than 475 metric tons of Russian highly enriched uranium eliminated

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Deliveries are 95 percent complete, represents 19,000 nuclear warheads converted to civilian use

WASHINGTON, D.C.–The National Nuclear Security Administration on Monday announced it has monitored the elimination of more than 475 metric tons of Russian highly enriched uranium, or HEU, under a landmark nuclear nonproliferation program, commonly known as Megatons to Megawatts.

The rough equivalent of 19,000 nuclear weapons has been permanently eliminated, the NNSA said in a press release. [Read more…]

Y-12 protester case goes to jury this afternoon

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Y-12 Plowshares Protesters

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…]

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

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Y-12 Plowshares Protesters

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…]

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

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Y-12 Water Treatment Plant Announcement

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…]

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

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Y-12 Plowshares Protesters

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…]

Alexander questions energy secretary nominee about Oak Ridge mercury cleanup

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U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander

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…]

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

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K-25 Building Aerial View

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.

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

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Clifton Truman Daniel

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.

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

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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.

[Read more…]

NNSA exceeds nuclear weapons dismantlement goal

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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.

[Read more…]