Protesters block road to
nuclear bomb plant

The Y-12 Nuclear Plant, located in
Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

By Brendan Conley

Aug. 7 (AGR)— Several hundred anti-nuclear protesters held a rally and demonstration at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, TN on Sunday, Aug. 4. Fourteen people were arrested, including three western North Carolina residents.

“This is about changing the direction our country is taking and reclaiming life,” said Paloma Galindo of Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance (OREPA), which organized the protest. “Our future is on the line.”

The demonstration is held each year to memorialize the US nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan and to protest continuing nuclear bomb production at the Y-12 plant.

Pat Liteky of Seattle, WA was arrested on federal trespassing charges when he crossed the boundary of the Y-12 base. The other thirteen were arrested on misdemeanor charges, most of them for blocking Scarboro Road, outside the base. David Miller of Asheville and Luke Webb and Dorothy Ross of Sylva were among those arrested.

The Y-12 plant, the last full-scale nuclear bomb production facility in the US, is undergoing a multi-billion dollar renovation to prepare for the production of “mini-nukes” now under consideration.

“We’re trying to call attention to the new nuclear posture the US is taking,” said Galindo. “Right now the US has been taken over by the arms industries. Our foreign policy is being decided by people motivated by greed and profit.”

OREPA organizes demonstrations at the Y-12 plant each April and August. The rally featured the music of Peggy Seeger and David Rovics, and speakers including Mary Olson of the Asheville office of Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). Also present were members of the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Religious Order, who had taken part in a month-long pilgrimage march from Atlanta.