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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Officials with Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge said there were no injuries nor any indication of a release of radioactivity after a fire involving uranium occurred early Wednesday. According to a release from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, the fire occurred at 9:14 a.m. Steven Wyatt with NNSA said that there was a hood fire in Building 9212, a uranium procession facility. The building and some nearby areas were evacuated. Tony Boser, a technical adviser, said that the fire was in a processing area and it was contained to that...

In June 2014, a worker at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee was surprised to find U.S. nuclear secrets inside a trash bag marked for disposal along with standard rubbish. Taking a closer look, the worker found 19 more documents in the bag that were either marked classified or were later determined to contain information that should have been labeled secret. A dozen more bags of trash sat nearby, awaiting transport to an open landfill where Y-12 workers routinely dump garbage with no bearing on national security. When employees of Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services, Y-12, LLC, the contractor...

OAK RIDGE — A woman with suspected mental issues was able to drive into the main entrance and all the way through the high-security Y-12 National Security Complex unhindered Thursday morning, according to an Oak Ridge Police Department report obtained by the News Sentinel. The security breach occurred less than a year after three protesters cut through a series of security fences and walked to the innermost sanctum of Y-12, the country’s largest repository of weapons-grade uranium.

No shortage of blame after July break-in OAK RIDGE — For decades, protesters have gathered at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant on the Aug. 6 anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, to call for a halt to production of nuclear weapons at the Oak Ridge plant. A few days before this year's event, they got their wish. At least temporarily. On Aug. 1, the National Nuclear Security Administration and its Y-12 contractor announced that all nuclear operations at the Oak Ridge plant, which enriched the uranium for the "Little Boy" bomb dropped on Hiroshima during...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government's only facility for handling, processing and storing weapons-grade uranium was temporarily shut this week after anti-nuclear activists, including an 82-year-old nun, breached security fences, government officials said on Thursday. WSI Oak Ridge, the contractor responsible for protecting the facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is owned by the international security firm G4S, which was at the center of a dispute over security at the London Olympic Games. Officials said that the facility was shut down on Wednesday at least until next week after three activists cut through perimeter fences to reach the outer wall of...

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.