Serious security breach at Oak Ridge nuclear weapons plant

the activists had passed through four fences and walked for “over two hours” before reaching the uranium storage building, on which they hung banners and strung crime-scene tape.

“It is unbelievable this could happen,” Stockton said. “The significance is outrageous. If they were terrorists, they could have blown open the door and got inside.” Stockton said the security breach was the “worst we’ve ever seen.”

Oak Ridge uranium plant shut after protesters breach 4 fences, reach building By Mark Hosenball, Reuters NBCNews US, 2 Aug 12, The U.S. government’s only facility for handling, processing and storing weapons-grade uranium has been temporarily shut after anti-nuclear activists, including an 82-year-old nun, breached security fences, government officials said on Thursday.
WSI Oak Ridge, the contractor responsible for protecting the facility
at Oak Ridge, Tenn., is owned by the international security firm G4S,
which was at the center of a dispute over security at the London
Olympic Games.
Officials said the facility was shut down on Wednesday at least until
next week after three activists cut through perimeter fences to reach
the outer wall of a building where highly enriched uranium, a key
nuclear bomb component, is stored.
The activists painted slogans and threw what they said was human blood
on the wall of the facility, one of numerous buildings in the facility
known by the code name Y-12 that it was given during World War Two,
officials said.
While moving between the perimeter fences, the activists triggered
sensors that alerted security personnel. But officials conceded the
intruders were still able to reach the building’s walls before
security personnel got to them. 3 face charges
Ellen Barfield, a spokeswoman for the activists who called themselves
“Transform Now Plowshares,” said three were arrested and charged with
vandalism and criminal trespass.
She said the three, identified as Megan Rice, 82, Michael Walli, 63
and Greg Boertje-Obed, 57, were being held in custody and appeared for
a hearing before a U.S. magistrate judge in Knoxville, Tennessee, on
Thursday. A detention hearing is set for Friday afternoon, when
prosecutors must show the defendants are a flight risk and a danger to
the community in order to keep them in custody, according to court
officials. The trial date is Oct. 9.
Barfield forwarded a statement from the group in which it said the
activists had passed through four fences and walked for “over two
hours” before reaching the uranium storage building, on which they
hung banners and strung crime-scene tape.
Ralph Hutchinson, coordinator for the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace
Alliance, said the group’s intention was not to demonstrate the lack
of security at the plant, but to take a stance against the making of
nuclear weapons.
“It wasn’t so they could show how easy it was to bust into this bomb
plant, it was because the production of nuclear weapons violates
everything that is moral and good,” Hutchinson said. “It is a war
crime.”…
The NNSA officials said the activists cut through two chain-link
fences surrounding the sprawling facility and a third fence
surrounding the ultra-secure enriched uranium stockpile building,
known as the “Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility.”
Wyatt said the building served as the U.S. government’s only
“warehouse” for storing highly enriched uranium used in nuclear
weapons.

Highly enriched uranium is a radioactive material used in the core of
bombs to produce a nuclear detonation. The Oak Ridge plant is one of
the most important government installations involved in the
maintenance and production of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Although the security breach occurred overnight last Friday, officials
confirmed that the shutdown – which applies to “all nuclear
operations” at the Y-12 site – did not begin until Wednesday.
Officials said it was expected to continue into next week.
In the meantime, personnel at the facility would be given additional
security training.
Peter Stockton, a former congressional investigator and security
consultant to the Energy Department, expressed skepticism at
government assertions the nuclear material was not at risk.
“It is unbelievable this could happen,” Stockton said. “The significance is outrageous. If they were terrorists, they could have blown open the door and got inside.” Stockton said the security breach was the “worst we’ve ever seen.” He
said it was more serious than the case of Wen Ho Lee, a Taiwan-born
scientist who was suspected of espionage at the Los Alamos nuclear
laboratory… http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/02/13092159-oak-ridge-uranium-plant-shut-after-protesters-breach-4-fences-reach-building?lite