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But the modernization isn't likely to be carried out in anything like a rational, cost-effective way..... It will likely include more than $6 billion dollars for a uranium processing facility, to be built at the Y-12 weapons compound in Oak Ridge, Tennessee..... Indeed, the states' two GOP senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, both said that money for modernization -- and therefore, in all likelihood, pork for their district -- was a key condition of their support.

Report shows items misidentified, oven temperature too high - OAK RIDGE - A federal spokesman confirmed that Oak Ridge workers overcooked some nuclear warhead components during a drying process to such an extent that the parts could no longer be "used as intended." Beyond that, the government isn't saying much.The incident at the Y-12 National Security Complex was revealed in a June 20 report by staff of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.The timing was about a month after the Oak Ridge plant received approval to restart production work on W76 warheads, which had been delayed for more than a...

CLINTON — The peace activists — a hospice nurse, a Catholic priest and a minister — said they were following a higher law to protest a crime against humanity: the making of nuclear weapons. The judge said the laws he took an oath to uphold bound him. “I’m obligated to follow the law and treat you like any other defendants,’’ Anderson County Criminal Court Judge Don Elledge told the activists. With that, Elledge today threw the book at Father Tom Lumpkin, Rev. Erick Johnson and nurse Pam Beziat, meting out the maximum 30-day jail sentence for obstructing a roadway. They...

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) - This is one cleaning that could pass anybody's white-glove test. A high-tech dust rag developed by a research chemist at a nuclear weapons plant can pick up potentially deadly beryllium particles that are 20 times smaller than what can be seen with the naked eye. Its inventor, Ron Simandl, says it could be used to mop up industrial accidents or wipe down semiconductor "clean rooms." And look out Swiffer dusters: The "Negligible-Residue Non-tacky Tack Cloth" could be bound for the consumer market, albeit with a catchier name. Simandl, who is used to working in a...

OAK RIDGE - Eight peace activists were arrested Saturday after they refused to leave the entrance to the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. They were demonstrating in remembrance of the civilians killed in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II and protesting the continued production of nuclear bombs. Y-12 enriched the uranium used in the A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and the Oak Ridge plant now manufactures replacement parts for the U.S. arsenal of nuclear weapons. About 275 people participated in a Saturday rally at Oak Ridge's Bissell Park and a march to Y-12, where protesters chanted, pinned paper...

OAK RIDGE - Protesters who briefly blocked the roadway next to the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant's main entrance on Hiroshima Day had their day in court on another nuclear anniversary - six decades after an atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. "It's Nagasaki Day,'' demonstrator John E. Heid told Anderson County General Sessions Judge Ron Murch on Tuesday. "It's the 60th anniversary of the nuclear cloud that hangs over this community.'' Heid traveled from Luck, Wis., to join more than 1,000 other peace activists in the Oak Ridge demonstration Saturday. Scheduled to coincide with Hiroshima Day, the Y-12 peace...

Citizen Soldiers for the Atomic Bomb Needs you to show your support for the veterans and a strong national defense at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee Y-12 Plant on August 6. For the past 20+/- years, OREPA has openly committed treason and mockery of our veterans and country at the entrance of the plant which manufactured the uranium that fueled 'little boy' who was dropped on Hiroshima. The peaceniks are hoping to close the plant via INTERNATIONAL LAW and leave US defenseless in a world dominated by terrorism and Communism. It will do your patriotic soul good to come out and...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sixteen illegal immigrants gained access last year to one of the most sensitive weapons sites in the country, according to a report issued Monday by the Department of Energy's inspector general. The inspector general's investigation found the illegal immigrants were construction workers on jobs at the Y-12 National Security Complex near Knoxville, Tennessee. The workers used "false documents" and "gained access to the ... site on multiple occasions," the report said. The report details how the workers, apparently using fake green cards, were able to obtain access badges.