Oak Ridge Today

Six East Tennessee women, two from Oak Ridge, to be honored with Peacemaker Awards

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Six long-time advocates for peace and justice, including two women from Oak Ridge, will be honored with the 2017 Peacemaker Awards in Knoxville on Saturday, March 11, a press release said.

Since 1999, the Peacemaker Awards, sponsored by the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, have recognized people who have distinguished themselves by speaking, acting, and working for social justice in East Tennessee, the press release said.

This year’s honorees are Shigeko Uppuluri and Marese Nephew of Oak Ridge, Caroline Best of Maryville, and MaryAnne McNutt, Judy Ross, and Sarah Scott of Knoxville. [Read more…]

Demonstrator arrested after annual march to Y-12

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OREPA-Rosdatter-Y-12-ORPD-Aug-6-2016-3

Beth Rosdatter of Lexington, Kentucky, in white T-shirt, was arrested on a state misdemeanor charge of obstructing a highway after she walked up to the federal “blue line” and sat on the pavement in front of it at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex on East Bear Creek Road on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 9:45 p.m. Aug. 7.

A Kentucky woman was arrested on a state misdemeanor charge after she walked up to the federal “blue line” at the front entrance of the Y-12 National Security Complex on East Bear Creek Road on Saturday afternoon and sat down on the pavement at the main entrance to the nuclear weapons plant.

Ralph Hutchison, coordinator of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, said Rosdatter, a 55-year-old mother who has a doctorate in philosophy, did not cross the blue line. Crossing it can result in federal charges.

In an apparent act of civil disobedience, Rosdatter sat in the roadway, on the hot asphalt near the blue line. She appeared to be questioned by Y-12 security officers and the Oak Ridge Police Department and then detained by the ORPD.

Also Saturday, Michael Walli, one of three protesters who broke into Y-12 on July 28, 2012, and splashed blood and sprayed graffiti on the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility as part of an effort to protest nuclear weapons, helped lead a two-mile nuclear disarmament march to Y-12 from Alvin K. Bissell Park in central Oak Ridge. Rosdatter’s arrest followed that march.

Walli was released from prison along with his two fellow protesters, Megan Rice and Greg Boertje-Obed, on May 16, 2015, eight days after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned their more serious felony sabotage convictions. [Read more…]

OREPA has nuclear disarmament events at A.K. Bissell Park, Y-12 today

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Y-12 OREPA Peace March

About 125 anti-nuclear weapons activists rallied at the Oak Ridge Civic Center on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2015, before marching almost two miles to the Y-12 National Security Complex. At front from left are JR Dazo of Las Vegas; Ken Jones of Asheville, N.C.; Buddhist monk Denise Laffan of Newport, Tennessee; and Roberto Guzman of Detroit. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance has organized several nuclear disarmament events at Alvin K. Bissell Park and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge today.

There was a names and remembrance ceremony scheduled from 6-9 a.m. today (Saturday, August 6) in front of Y-12, at the intersection of Scarboro and Bear Creek roads. That annual ceremony marks the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, near the end of World War II. Uranium for that bomb, code-named Little Boy, was enriched in Oak Ridge.

From 12:30-3:30 p.m. today (Saturday, August 6), OREPA has a Concert for Peace and Rally for Disarmament at Alvin K. Bissell Park with a March for Abolition that starts at the park. [Read more…]

Three groups seek info on plan to bring spent nuke fuel to ORNL

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Ralph Hutchison

Ralph Hutchison

Three nuclear watchdog organizations have filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeking information about plans to ship high burn-up commercial spent nuclear fuel from the North Anna power reactor in Virginia to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, a press release said. The three organizations are Savannah River Site Watch in Columbia, South Carolina; Snake River Alliance Education Fund in Pocatello, Idaho; and the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance in Oak Ridge.

The groups filed the FOIA request after discovering a letter approving a shipping route from North Anna to Oak Ridge, the press release said. It said the letter provides little information about the specifics of the route or the timing of the proposed shipment.

“We asked for a map of the route two weeks ago,” said Ralph Hutchison, coordinator of OREPA. “So far, we’ve received nothing. So we are resorting to the formal—and more expensive for the government—FOIA process to get information.”

Tom Clements, director of SRS Watch, filed the FOIA on behalf of the three organizations. The Savannah River Site was initially under consideration for the research project. [Read more…]

OREPA celebrates 16 years of Sunday vigils this week

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OREPA Vigil Announcement Nov. 29, 2015

The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance will celebrate 16 years of uninterrupted Sunday vigils at the gates of the Y-12 National Security Complex on Sunday, November 29, a press release said. The vigil starts at 5 p.m.

The vigils, which began on the first Sunday of Advent in November 1999, are intended to “bear witness to life and peace at the place where workers prepare for the destruction of the planet,” the press release said.

Thousands of people have attended the Sunday vigils; every continent except Antarctica has been represented; two presidental candidates have attended, the press release said.

“We welcome everyone to the vigils,” said OREPA coordinator Ralph Hutchison. “They attest to the persistent desire for peace and the refusal to be silent in the face of the threat Y12 poses to all humanity.”

For more information, contact Hutchison at (865) 776-5050.

Three years after break-in, protesters return to Y-12

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Michael Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed at Y-12

The three protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex and vandalized a uranium storage building three years ago returned to the nuclear weapons plant during a march in Oak Ridge on Saturday. The three protesters—from left, they are Michael Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed—object to nuclear weapons and the planned Uranium Processing Facility. Here they are pictured on Scarboro Road across from Y-12. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 8:30 a.m. August 9.

The three protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex and vandalized a uranium storage building three years ago returned to the nuclear weapons plant during a march in Oak Ridge on Saturday.

The march and rally were organized by the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance as part of a series of events that commemorate the 70th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, near the end of World War II. Uranium for the first bomb, the Little Boy atomic bomb that was dropped over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, was enriched at Y-12.

The three protesters—Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli—were convicted on two felony charges on May 8, 2013, in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. But their conviction on the more serious felony sabotage charge was overturned two years later, on May 8, 2015, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati. Boertje-Obed, Rice, and Walli were released on May 16 and have a re-sentencing hearing on September 15 in Knoxville. [Read more…]

Three Y-12 protesters will discuss Oak Ridge action in first public reunion since prison

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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, 2012, and vandalized a uranium storage building. From left, they are Michael Walli, Megan Rice, and Greg Boertje-Obed. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

The three protesters who broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex three years ago and vandalized the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility will discuss their Oak Ridge action in their first public reunion since they were released from prison in May.

Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli will speak at the Church of the Savior (UCC) in Knoxville at 7 p.m. today (Friday, August 7).

Their sabotage conviction from the July 28, 2012, incident was overturned earlier this year. Since their release from prison in May, the three protesters, who are described as nonviolent peace activists, have appeared on national and international news programs, organizers said. [Read more…]

OREPA has events in Oak Ridge, Knoxville on 70th anniversary of WWII bombings

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Ralph Hutchison

Ralph Hutchison

The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance has a series of events in Oak Ridge and Knoxville this week on the 70th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II.

The events will recall the bombings and address present-day nuclear weapons production, a press release said.

The events kicked off with an evening with Gar Alperovitz, author of “The Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb,” at the East Tennessee History Center in Knoxville on Sunday and continued on Monday with faith leaders speaking about the bomb in Market Square in Knoxville.

They continue today (Tuesday, August 4.) Here’s the schedule: [Read more…]

Youth to demonstrate in Oak Ridge, say ‘no’ to ‘bomb plant’

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OREPA Spring Demonstration at Y-12

Members of 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 2013. (File photo)

 

Young people from Knoxville and Maryville have planned a peace rally, demonstration, and march in Oak Ridge on Saturday to protest the proposed Uranium Processing Facility, which they call a “bomb plant,” at Y-12 National Security Complex, a press release said.

The peace rally and demonstration is called Action for Peace and Disarmament, and it starts at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, May 2, at Alvin K. Bissell Park with a bring-your-own-picnic lunch, a press release said. It will be followed by a youth led program at 1 p.m. and a march to the Y-12 at 2 p.m.

“While young people will provide the leadership, the event is open to people of all ages,” organizers said in the press release. [Read more…]

OREPA has names, remembrance ceremony at Y-12 on Wednesday

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OREPA Peace Cranes at Y-12

Sharon O’Hara-Bruce of Lake Orion, Mich., ties a peace crane to a fence set up in front of the Y-12 National Security during a ceremony last year recalling the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945, near the end of World War II.

An Oak Ridge peace organization will mark the 69th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, with a names and remembrance ceremony across from the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex on Wednesday morning.

It’s an annual ceremony for the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance that commemorates the bombing of Hiroshima near the end of World War II. Uranium for that bomb, code-named Little Boy, was enriched in Oak Ridge.

The Names and Remembrance Ceremony will be held directly across from the East Bear Creek Road entrance to Y12, starting at 6 a.m. and continuing until 9 a.m., a press release said.

“The ceremony, intended to be a solemn and non-confrontational remembrance, is an effort to join our voices to the voices of the hibakusha—the dwindling band of courageous survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima to say ‘Never again!'” the press release said. “We remember so we do not repeat.” [Read more…]

Seattle man arrested during Y-12 protest crossed blue trespass line, police say

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Christopher Ryan Spicer Arrest at Y-12

Christopher Ryan Spicer of Seattle was arrested and charged with criminal trespass at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex on Sunday. (Photo courtesy Ralph Hutchison)

The Seattle man who was arrested and charged with criminal trespassing at the Y-12 National Security Complex on Sunday had repeatedly failed to comply with police commands, and he crossed a blue trespass line at the main entrance to the nuclear weapons plant, authorities said.

Christopher Ryan Spicer, 31, was participating in a weekly protest at Y-12 at about 6 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of Bear Creek and Scarboro roads. This protest was significant because it occurred less than two days before the scheduled sentencing of the three protesters who broke into Y-12 in July 2012 and spray-painted slogans and splashed blood on a uranium storage building.

Dozens of people came to Knoxville from across the country for the Tuesday sentencing of the three: Greg Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice, and Michael Walli. However, it was postponed to Feb. 18 because of snow.

Christopher Ryan Spicer

Christopher Ryan Spicer

Oak Ridge Police Department Officer James Elkins said Spicer was among the protesters on Sunday evening before he crossed a street and walked toward the Y-12 guard shack. Spicer repeatedly failed to comply with orders given by him and ORPD Sgt. Roy Heinz, Elkins said in a warrant filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court. The officers told Spicer to stop as he approached the blue trespass line at the federal site, Elkins said. [Read more…]

Guest column: U.S. Marshals place ‘Cone of Silence’ over Sr. Megan Rice

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Ralph Hutchison

Ralph Hutchison

By Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance

The U.S. Marshals have placed a “cone of silence” over Sister Megan Rice, the 83-year-old defendant in the Transform Now Plowshares action who is being held in jail in Knoxville awaiting her sentencing on Tuesday, Jan. 28, in federal court in Knoxville on charges of sabotage and depredation of federal property. Her actual crime was embarrassing the federal government, along with Greg Boertje-Obed and Michael Walli, by sneaking into the nation’s ultra-secure Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Complex in Oak Ridge and painting peace slogans and pouring blood on the side of a warehouse that stores hundreds of tons of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium.

She has been in jail since a jury delivered a guilty verdict on the trumped-up charges in May 2013.

On Sunday, Jan. 26, Megan called local supporters to report that a phone interview that had been arranged with BBC-London had suddeny been denied. “They were so helpful here at the jail yesterday with making arrangements for the call,” she said, “and then tonight the woman was loud and rude and told me there would be no call. The U.S. Marshals were not allowing it.” [Read more…]