By: John Huotari | john.huotari@oakridger.com
8/6/2007

Several hundred protesters met in Oak Ridge on Saturday, objecting to nuclear weapons production work at the Y-12 National Security Complex.

Five people were arrested at Y-12’s main entrance on Scarboro Road for obstructing a public roadway, part of an annual act of civil disobedience. This year, they chained themselves together and to a barricade, holding a sign that read, “Our New Hope: A World Without Nuclear Weapons.”

“We have come to have our voices heard,” Maryville resident Erik Johnson said at an earlier rally at A.K. Bissell

Park, where protesters enjoyed music, food and a puppet show. “People ... want the gifts of human resources channeled toward goodness for the well-being of all human life and the care of the Earth — rather than for the building of weapons of mass destruction.”

Johnson is a member of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, which has been leading the peace protests at Y-12 for 19 years. The protests are held annually around the anniversary of the Aug. 6, 1945, bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.

Uranium enriched at Y-12 helped fuel that bomb, the first atomic weapon used in wartime.

Coming from as far away as Sweden, protesters said the United States is violating international law and disregarding the U.S. Constitution by helping to make bombs at Y-12 rather than pursuing disarmament.

“The work here contradicts our commitment to the (Nuclear) Non-proliferation Treaty,” said Ralph Hutchison, OREPA coordinator.

The protesters drummed, chanted, and carried signs and flags down South Tulane Avenue and South Illinois Avenue on their way from A.K. Bissell Park to the Y-12 entrance. Along the way, they scattered sunflower seeds, symbolizing their hopes for an end to the international nuclear arms race.

The five people arrested on Saturday were:

• Mary Dennis Lentsch, 70, of Oak Ridge;

• Elizabeth Velkey Brockman, 44, of Durham, N.C.;

• Mary Ellen Gondeck, 66, of Detroit, Mich.;

• William Thomas Hickey, 62, of Detroit, Mich.; and

• Billie Jo Hickey, 58, also of Detroit.

All except Gondeck were taken to the Anderson County jail.

Some of Saturday’s protesters had walked or biked from Asheville, N.C., while others had run from Columbus, Ohio.

It took protester Lena Feldman more than three days to bike about 170 miles from Asheville.

Her motivation? “My desire to see actual disarmament instead of just refurbishment going on at Y-12,” Feldman said.

She called Y-12 a “crime scene” for its effects on the environment and human spirit, as well as public health, and she said refurbishing nuclear weapons motivates other countries to arm themselves.

For their part, Y-12 officials said they are proud of the work they do, including that done on nuclear non-proliferation as well as disarmament work aimed at reducing weapons stockpiles.

“We’re helping to ensure the national security,” said Steve Wyatt, National Nuclear Security Administration spokesman. NNSA, a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy, oversees Y-12.

Wyatt said the nation still needs a reliable, safe nuclear deterrent.

A peace demonstrator holds a sign protesting nuclear weapons during the annual demonstration outside the gate of the Y-12 National Security Complex Saturday afternoon. Law enforcement officers guard the Y-12 entrance.

From Oak Rider