The Y-12 break-in: One year later

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http://knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/2013/07/27/the-y-12-break-in-one-year-later/

The Y-12 break-in: One year later

For decades, the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant relished its nickname, the Fort Knox of Uranium. The self-anointed moniker helped define the type of work that takes place there and underscored the government facility’s top-security image.

Overnight, however, Fort Knox became a laughingstock.

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Instead of being compared to the nation’s gold standard, Y-12 security was suddenly “Second to Nun” and the butt of other jokes and slogans.

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According to Laura Herzog, the senator’s communications director, Corker was told Y-12 officials understood the seriousness of the matter and were taking appropriate corrective actions. “Since then, another incident has occurred, suggesting that the Department of Energy still does not have proper security measures in place at our nuclear weapons facilities,” she said.

Herzog was making reference to a June 6 security breakdown in which a lost and apparently confused driver was waved into the plant at the main entrance, even though she had no security credentials and no business at the weapons plant. Two months before that, a bike rider was arrested on a Y-12 patrol road — not far from where the Plowshares protesters initially broke into the plant — after traversing most of the plant’s northside boundary.

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Asked if she wanted to shut down production of nuclear weapons at Y-12, Rice said, “With all my heart.”

The 83-year-old nun said her only regret was that she waited 70 years to do what she knew was the right thing to do all along.

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1. Ralph Hutchison: Plowshares action ‘made people aware’

http://knoxblogs.com/atomiccity/2013/07/27/ralph-hutchison-plowshares-action-made-people-aware/

As the anniversary of the July 28, 2012 break-in approached, I asked Ralph Hutchison, long-time peace activist and coordinator of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, what he thought were the positive impacts of the Plowshares protest action.

Here’s what he said:

“The Plowshares action has made people aware that Y-12 is an active weapons production site and has drawn attention to the management deficiencies—not only the contractor, but the NNSA which is responsible for oversight. For instance, long-standing concerns by the GAO received more attention because they resonated with what lawmakers suddenly were interested in.

“The Plowshares action also reached more people locally—at presentations in churches and schools, people came—maybe out of curiosity, maybe out of appreciation, maybe out of displeasure—to hear presentations by Greg, Michael and Megan. In every case, people went away knowing more than they knew before. And most people, I think, found the message they heard compelling; the authenticity of the belief-put-into-action by Greg, Megan and Michael is very powerful, even to people who do not share their religious or spiritual perspective.

“I don’t know that they expected this, or that any of us realized it at the time, but I think the action somehow brought an energy into our community—to the issue, to people engaged in Oak Ridge issues from a variety of perspectives. People like Pete Stockton (investigator with the Project On Government Oversight) found themselves with explosive material to work with (no pun intended, and not much of one delivered). Certainly I had a lot of new work to do, the action resulted in new contacts, broadening and deepening our organizing efforts; a quick glance at the headlines of your blog posts this past year—it’s hard to imagine the content without the TNP action. Now I see it is sort of the natural, inevitable rippling out of the immediate impact of the action, and it’s happening in so many arenas—contract decisions, security issues—across the board.

“Clearly the Washington Post six-page spread was a positive in terms of raising awareness about nuclear weapons activities in Oak Ridge.

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2. K&R nt