[Dryerase] Protesters block road to nuclear bomb plant

[Asheville Global Report]

Protesters block road to nuclear bomb plant

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.