[Tennessee]--Come September, The Y-12 thirteen nuclear resisters will be sentenced for their July 5th 2010 nonviolent civil disobedience protest against USA MADE Nuclear Weapons.
I was eyewitness
to that day when priests and nuns,
agnostics, anarchists and a clown were among the 23 arrested by the State and 13
by the Federal Government for nonviolently resisting Nuclear Weapons at the Y-12
Complex in Tennessee.
Federal charges were for trespassing-and I was tempted to join those who crossed under the wire fence as MEDIA when I saw the "photographer' who had been very busy the preceding few hours snapping photos of our crowd of over 200 nuclear resisters who had come together two days prior for a weekend long celebration of 30 years of The Nuke Resister and Nukewatch.
Just as I put my hand to the wire fence, I saw that "photographer' converse with one of the officers that surrounded the 13, and only then did I realize she was a Federal Agent who had been among citizens of conscience who had come from Australia, California, New Hampshire, Canada and this lone voice out of Florida to demand an END to USA manufacturing, storing and using Nuclear Weapons.
Dominican Sister Ardeth Platte, on her crutch being arrested by the American Government
Catholic priest, Bill Bichsel leads the line being handcuffed at Y-12, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, July 5, 2010.
The Declaration of
Independence from Nuclear Weapons at Y-12 ,
was read just prior to the arrests:
The Declaration of Independence on
July 4, 1776 indicted a government that engaged in barbaric conduct contrary to
the laws of Humanity that included "works of death, destruction and
tyranny unparalleled in the most barbaric ages" until the Age of Now!
Current Law requires an end to all
planning, preparation, production, threat, or use of nuclear weapons and we the
people have gathered here today, July 4, 2010 at Y-12 to demand this Government
adhere to the fundamental rules and principles of Humanitarian Law.
These rules and principles require
that civilians never be the object of attack. Consequently we must never use
weapons that are incapable of distinguishing between civilians and military
targets.
Whereas, all W-76 and W-76-1
thermonuclear secondaries produced at Y-12 are designed and produced to unleash
100 KT of uncontrollable and indiscriminate heat, blast and radiation, six
times more than the Hiroshima Bomb,
Whereas, the International Court of
Justice found that the destructive power of nuclear weapons cannot be contained
in either space or time, and that the potential to destroy all civilization and
the entire ecosystem of the planet,
Whereas, citizens have both rights and
duties we the people of conscience must ensure future generations their right
to life,
Whereas, under the principals of
democracy we the people of conscience demand this government to fulfill its
promise and responsibilities to pursue and achieve nuclear disarmament,
We the people of conscience therefore
exercise the right of every citizen of this republic and this planet to
peacefully resist the nuclear threat; attacking as it does every core concept
of human rights.
Whereas it is a basic human right to
be free of threat or violence, and it is our duty to protect children and
future generations we call on this government to use our tax dollars that are
now being used to wage permanent war unequivocally demand they be used to
pursue a nuclear free world and clean up all chemical and radioactive
contamination. ###
A Little History:
The DOE/Department of Energy's nuclear weapons design and production complex consists of eight sites.
The NNSA/National Nuclear Security Administration runs the weapons complex, and is planning to build three new nuclear facilities that will significantly expand U.S. warhead production capacity.
The Y12 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee will produce "secondaries" which equates to 125 new nuclear weapons per year.
The Y-12 Plant is currently scheduled to manufacture upwards of 2,000 LEPS/Life Extension Programs warheads by 2016, which are refurbished WMD and which will equate to 80 NEW Nuclear Weapons a Year.
This will also exceed the number of deployed warheads permitted under the New START Treaty (1,675), as well as undermining the argument that new production facilities are even needed!
Most nuclear weapons in the current U.S. stockpile were produced anywhere from 30 to 40 years ago and they were not designed or intended to last indefinitely.
In the mid-1990's, the DOE embarked upon "Life Extensions Programs/LEPs to refurbish and extend the "shelf life' of existing nuclear weapons. Under the LEP, warheads in the current arsenal are disassembled, parts are refurbished or replaced with new components, and the warheads are reassembled and redeployed.
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