The government has taken the case seriously. "We think, even though they were convicted of a federal crime, there are mitigating circumstances and they made the country safer," Lyman said. While acknowledging the three were convicted of a federal crime, they exposed serious security weaknesses at Y-12, the group said.Įdwin Lyman, a nuclear security expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in January that the protesters did the nation a public service. Those include letters from groups such as the Union for Concerned Scientists. Thousands of letters of support have poured into the court from around the world. The three have garnered worldwide attention. Security experts have said the breach raised questions about not only about how the nation protects its nuclear weapons and materials but also how private companies secure civilian sites such as nuclear-power plants. It increased patrols and removed the guard force's general manager and two of his key staff.Ĭongress had hearings and newly appointed Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz called the break-in unacceptable. The incident prompted the Department of Energy to take immediate action.
They spent more than two hours in a restricted area and had time to splash blood on the outside of the building where the government processes weapons-grade uranium before security personnel apprehended them. The three cut through fences and made it through multiple layers of security. The protesters picked late July 2012 to break in to the Y-12 National Security Complex because it was close to the dates the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II. He said he hoped that a significant prison sentence would deter others from following the same path and bring them "back to the political system I fear that they have given up on." Thapar didn't oblige but did say that breaking the law isn't the right way to pursue political goals. "To remain in prison for the rest of my life would be the greatest honor you could give me." "Please have no leniency on me," she said. The two men received longer sentences based on their criminal history.ĭuring a four-hour hearing Tuesday, Rice pleaded with the judge not to grant her leniency. In addition, Walli and Boertje-Obed will have three years of supervised release after their prison terms. Previously, Thapar had ordered the trio to pay nearly $53,000 in restitution for damaging U.S. The judge sentenced Walli and Boertje-Obed both to five years and two months in prison. District Judge Amul Thapar in Knoxville, Tenn., sentenced Rice to 35 months in prison for her role in the July 28, 2012, break-in and protest. All three are members of the Plowshares movement of Christian pacifists. 31, and fellow anti-nuclear activists Michael Walli, 64, and Greg Boertje-Obed, 58, were convicted in May of sabotaging the plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
government's most secure facilities and helping deface a uranium-processing building with human blood, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. Watch Video: Oak Ridge nuclear protesters sentenced to prisonĪn 84-year-old Catholic nun will spend nearly three years in federal prison for breaking into one of the U.S.