Today’s award goes to the security personnel at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Three peace activists — including an 82-year-old nun — infiltrated the highest-security area of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in a predawn protest Saturday, reportedly evading guards and cutting through three or four fences in order to spray-paint messages, hang banners and pour human blood at the site where warhead parts are manufactured and the nation’s stockpile of bomb-grade uranium is stored.
It was an unprecedented security breach at the Oak Ridge plant, which enriched the uranium for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II and continues to be a mainstay of the U.S. nuclear defense program.
. . .
Steven Wyatt, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration at Y-12, declined to discuss details of the early-morning events at the Oak Ridge, but he acknowledged that the unapproved entry into the plant’s inner sanctum — a high-security zone known simply as the Protected Area — was unprecedented.
“There’s never been a situation like this before to my knowledge,” Wyatt said Saturday afternoon.
If unarmed protesters dressed in dark clothing could reach the plant’s core during the cover of dark, it raised questions about the plant’s security against more menacing intruders.
. . .
Saturday’s intrusion at Y-12 comes just a few days after the WSI, the government’s security contractor in Oak Ridge, confirmed plans to eliminate about 50 security jobs in Oak Ridge — including 34 security police officers at Y-12.
There’s more at the link.
Let’s see now. We trust you to keep out Russian and Chinese spies, Al Qaeda terrorists, and others of their ilk . . . but you can’t keep out an 82-year-old nun armed with banners and spray paint???
Doofi indeed!
Peter
Well, this could be a 'concerned security type' who would have been likely to lose his job, before the horrible security breach happened.
Now, obviously the whole program needs to be re-evaluated and given more money!
Anarchangel blogged about this over the weekend as well and speculated that it might have been retaliation for 35 guards being let go prior to the incident. I think it's highly suspect myself, even having seen some lax military security, I haven't seen any that would let an 82 year old woman through without looking into it.
She really was 82? Spry old thing!