HOW DID Y-12 ACTIVISTS DO IT? DETAILS EMERGE

By ExchangeMonitor

Details of the Y-12 security breach continued to emerge yesterday as documents were filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. A sworn affidavit filed by a Department of Energy Inspector General special agent revealed that the three peace activists entered the plant from the north side of the facility during the evening of July 28, traveling via partially wooded Pine Ridge. The activists got past an initial boundary fence on Pine Ridge near the North patrol road, traveled approximately 600 meters and crossed Bear Creek Road, and then cut through three eight-foot tall fences that make up the Perimeter Intrusion Detection and Assessment System using bolt cutters, triggering alarms and sensors between the fences, IG special agent Eric Dugger said in the affidavit. The activists also cut alarm wires on the second fence they cut through, and reached the Protected Area and the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, throwing blood on the building and painting “Woe to the empire of blood,” “the fruit of justice is peace,” and “Plowshares pleases Isaiah” on its outside wall.

When the activists were arrested, Dugger said “officers found two flashlights, a set of binoculars, red ‘danger’ tape, a backpack, two sets of bolt cutter tools, three hammers, six cans of spray paint, candles, flowers, seeds, plastic zip ties, matches, gloves, a ‘Plowshares’ banner, a Bible, bread and copies of a letter.” The letter read, in part, “We come to the Y-12 facility because our very humanity rejects the designs of nuclearism, empire and war. Our faith in love and nonviolence encourages us to believe that our activity here is necessary; that we come to invite transformation, undo the past and present work of Y-12; disarm and end any further efforts to increase the Y-12 capacity for an economy and social structure based upon war-making and empire-building.” Dugger did not reveal how long the activists spent inside the protected area, why they were not apprehended before reaching the Protected Area, or how long it took guards to catch them. A preliminary hearing for the activists is scheduled for Thursday.

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