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Walk for nuclear free world

Walk for nuclear free world

By John Huotari | john.huotari@oakridger.com

The Oak Ridger

Feb 15, 2010

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OAK RIDGE, Tenn. —

Calling for an end to nuclear weapons and power, about 30 activists began a three-month peace walk on Saturday from the Y-12 National Security Complex to the United Nations in New York City.

The long journey kicked off Saturday morning with an “opening circle” that included about 40 people in front of the Y-12 entrance on Scarboro Road.

The walkers, including participants from Australia and France, have a message to deliver at the United Nations — where they will meet up with other groups from Massachusetts, New York and Washington, D.C., at the opening of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty review conference in early May…………

On Saturday, the walkers were headed from the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge, which enriched uranium for the first atomic bomb used in wartime, to Clinton.

They could possibly cover 13 to 15 miles a day, Atkinson said.

Participants said similar walks have taken place or are planned in Europe and Australia — and they denounced the financial, environmental and societal costs of nuclear weapons and power.

“There is no ‘peaceful use’ of nuclear power, as the process from the very beginning of the cycle is so destructive,” Atkinson opined in a press release.

Ralph Hutchison, coordinator of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, said Y-12 continues to work on atomic weapons — “casting a shadow over the next century” — and the United States is violating the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty because it is reconstituting weapons rather than disarming.

Walk for nuclear free world – Oak Ridge, TN – The Oak Ridger

February 16, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear weapons