Oak Ridge Today

Manhattan Project Park will commemorate atomic bomb effects

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The International Friendship Bell is pictured above in Alvin K. Bissell Park in Oak Ridge. (Photo courtesy National Park Service)

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park will ring the International Friendship Bell 76 times on Friday morning, August 6, to commemorate the effects of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima 76 years ago.

The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945. It was the first atomic bomb used in war and the first of two dropped on Japan near the end of World War II. Uranium for the first bomb, which was code-named “Little Boy,” was enriched in Oak Ridge. The bomb had about 140 pounds of uranium fuel and had an explosive force equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT, according to Atomic Heritage. Between 90,000 and 166,000 people are believed to have died from the 10-foot, 9,700-pound bomb in the four-month period following the explosion, Atomic Heritage said.

The National Park Service is calling the August 6 ceremony “Days of Peace and Remembrance.”

“During this silent event, we will be requesting visitors to come up and ring the bell,” a press release said. “Visitors will be able to write down their own hopes and messages of peace.”

The United States dropped a second atomic bomb, a plutonium-fueled weapon, on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945, three days after the Hiroshima bombing. It had about 13.6 pounds of plutonium fuel and an explosive force equivalent to 21,000 tons of TNT. About 80,000 Japanese died by the end of 1945 because of that bomb, which was called “Fat Man,” Atomic Heritage said.

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Protesters will say nuclear weapons illegal under UN treaty

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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 Uranium Processing Facility in April 2013. (File photo)

Protesters plan to hang a banner at a nuclear weapons production site in Oak Ridge early Friday afternoon that will declare the weapons illegal under a United Nations treaty.

The banner, which will say “Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal,” will be hung on a fence across from the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex on Scarboro Road. The banner will be hung after parts of the international agreement—the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons—are read, organizers said.

Protesters said they also plan to hang a poster of the text of the treaty and 122 yellow “X”s on the fence, one for every nation that voted in favor of the treaty at the United Nations.

“January 22, 2021, will be a historic day for nuclear weapons,” according to a press release from Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, which has organized weekly and annual events opposing nuclear weapons for many years. “On that day, at midnight, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons enters into force, establishing in international law a categorical ban on nuclear weapons, seventy-five years after their development and first use.”

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Anti-nuclear weapons activists to commemorate Hiroshima bombing

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The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Oak Ridge Today file photo)

 

Citizens calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons will gather in Oak Ridge on Saturday, August 4, at 10:30 a.m. at Alvin K. Bissell Park to commemorate the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 and to call for the United States to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was adopted in July 2017 by 122 nations, a press release said.

The Oak Ridge events on August 4 are sponsored by the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, and they will include music and political theater as well as a report on ongoing nuclear weapons production activities at Y-12, the press release said.

“Y-12 represents the full circle in time,” said OREPA coordinator Ralph Hutchison. “The age of nuclear weapons started here, with the enrichment of the Little Boy bomb’s uranium. And it continues today, in the face of world condemnation, with the production of thermonuclear secondaries and plans for a new bomb production plant, the Uranium Processing Facility, which will continue to make nuclear bomb cores for decades to come.” [Read more…]

DOE, NNSA deny alleged risk of ‘catastrophic collapse’ of old Y-12 buildings

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Y-12 Building 9212

A low-level aerial shot of Building 9212 at the Y-12 National Security Complex, one of the buildings mentioned in a federal lawsuit filed in July over the proposed Uranium Processing Facility.

 

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

The plaintiffs in a civil lawsuit filed in federal court in July alleged that there is a risk of a catastrophic collapse of old buildings containing nuclear weapon components at the Y-12 National Security Complex, possibly due to a large earthquake. A catastrophic collapse “would likely” result in the release of nuclear or toxic materials and place the environment and local residents in “extreme peril,” the plaintiffs said.

But federal officials denied that allegation and others in a response filed in late September.

The 44-page civil complaint, which is related to the planned Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12, was filed July 20 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The seven plaintiffs include three public interest organizations—Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, and Natural Resources Defense Council of Washington, D.C.—and four people who live in Oak Ridge and Knoxville.

The federal lawsuit asked for an environmental review of the new design for the UPF, where design plans have changed from one building to three. The lawsuit alleged that the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration have violated a federal environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, as they implement the major design change.

Specifically, the plaintiffs have requested a new supplemental environmental impact statement or a new site-wide environmental impact statement for the revised UPF design. They cited the decision to build several new buildings and the plan to continue using existing buildings that the plaintiffs say have significant structural defects. They want the U.S. District Court to vacate, or void, a supplement analysis and an amended record of decision prepared by the NNSA in 2016. [Read more…]

Peace activists will remember Hiroshima, Nagasaki bombings, call for ban on nuclear weapons

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OREPA-Ralph-Hutchison-Aug-6-2016-2

Ralph Hutchison, coordinator of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, is pictured above during a rally at Alvin K. Bissell Park on Saturday, Aug. 6, 2016. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Peace activists will have events in Oak Ridge and Knoxville starting Saturday and ending Wednesday that will recall the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II, and the activists will call for a ban on nuclear weapons.

The events have been organized by the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance. OREPA has events each August remembering the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki near the end of World War II. The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge enriched uranium for the first atomic bomb used in wartime. Code-named “Little Boy,” the bomb was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, shortly before the end of the war.

OREPA has scheduled a Saturday event called “And We Are Saying Peace.” It will start at 12:30 p.m. with a concert and theater presentation at Alvin K. Bissell Park in Oak Ridge. Those who attend will call on the United States to join the countries that passed a legal treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons at the United Nations on July 7, a press release said.

The Saturday event will also mark the conclusion of a peace pilgrimage from Asheville, North Carolina, to Oak Ridge, led by the Buddhist order Nipponzan Myohoji, the press release said. The walk left Asheville last Sunday and is expected to arrive at Bissell Park on Saturday. The final leg will leave Solway at 9 a.m. Saturday. [Read more…]

OREPA to present information about U.S. weapons programs at United Nations

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Ralph Hutchison

Ralph Hutchison

The United Nations conference on a nuclear weapons ban opens in New York City on Monday, March 27. The purpose of the conference is to “negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading toward their total elimination,” a press release said.

Ralph Hutchison, coordinator of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, will be presenting in a side event during the conference on Tuesday, March 28, with colleagues from other nuclear weapons sites, the press release said. The panel discussion, “US Nuclear Modernization Under President Trump: Implications for the Ban Treaty Process,” was organized by the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability. The focus will be on U.S. efforts to modernize the entire nuclear weapons program, the release said. [Read more…]

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…]

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 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 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…]