Huge security shake-up at Y-12; Secretary Chu announces suspension of guards, relocation of key security managers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Energy Secretary Steven Chu released a statement this evening outlining a series of stiff personnel actions -- including suspension of guards and reassignment of key federal and contractor managers -- taken by the federal agency to deal with the unprecedented security breach by antiwar activists and other problems at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. The statement also says that Glenn Podonsky, the department's chief of Health, Safety and Security, will conduct a separate investigation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://blogs.knoxnews.com/munger/2012/08/huge-security-shake-up-at-y-12.html
Comments
WSI rated 'good,' gets $1.43M for Y-12 work
WSI-Oak Ridge, the National Nuclear Security Administration's protective force contractor at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, got $1,437,545.64 in fees for the six-month period that ended March 31. According to a June 14 letter to NNSA Production Office contracting officer Philip Kirby, WSI's performance for the period was rated "good." The fee received was 93 percent of the total available ($1.545M) for the period.
Posted by Frank Munger on June 30, 2012
----------------
I wonder what they'll get next year.
---------
Protesters apparently entered Y-12 via Pine Ridge; IG agent says the three activated alarms, sensors at PIDAS fences
Three protesters apparently traversed the partially wooded Pine Ridge on the north side of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in order to enter the plant during the dark, early morning hours of July 28 and ultimately reach the high-security zone known as the Protected Area.
According to the sworn affidavit of Eric Dugger, a special agent with the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Inspector General, the three protesters -- Sister Megan Rice, 82; Michael Walli, 63, and Greg Boertje-Obed, 57 -- were able to cross the plant's initial boundary fence on the ridge near a Y-12 patrol road and then traveled about 600 meters, crossing Bear Creek Road at one point, until they came to a series of eight-foot-high fences loaded with alarms and sensors. Collectively, those fences form the plant's electronic Perimeter Intrusion Detection and Assessment System, which is supposed to alert security personnel to unauthorized entry.
Dugger's affidavit was filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville, where the three anti-war protesters are facing federal charges of trespassing, a misdeameanor, and willful and malicious destruction of property, a felony. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday before Federal Magistrate Judge G. Clifford Shirley.
Dugger said they would have passed many signs warning against trespassing and unauthorized entry, including warnings of deadly force when they approached the high-security Protected Area.
The special agent said the three defendants were able to get through the first PIDAS fence by using bolt-cutters to cut the fence. Then they pried it back and crawled through the opening, he said.
"When traveling between the fences, Walli, Boertje-Obed and Ride activated alarms and sensors," Dugger said in the affidavit. At the next PIDAS security fence, they repeated the procedures and while cutting the fence, "they severed alarm wires," he said.
After doing the same thing at a third fence, they were able to enter the Protected Area and make their way to the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility, which houses the nation's primary supply of weapons-grade uranium.
Once there, they painted the phrases "Woe to the empire of blood," "the fruit of justice is peace," and "Plowshares pleases Isiah" on the outside wall of the big building. They also threw blood on the buildlng, he said in the affidavit.
"They left numerous emputy containers and trash on the ground outside the building, as well," the document states
When security guards apprehended the three (reportedly around 4:30 a.m.), these items were reported found on the defendants: six cans of spray paint, flowers, seeds, three hammers, bolt-cutter tools, a Bible, bread, matches, plastic zip ties, and copies of a letter.
The letter said, in part, Our faith in love and nonviolence encourages us to believe that our activity here is necessary; that we come to invite transformation, undo the past and present work of Y-12; disarm and end any further effort to increase the Y-12 capacity for an economy and social structure based upon war-making and empire-building." The letter was signed by the three, Dugger said.
Posted by Frank Munger on August 6, 2012
The security sensors around these complexes are not calibrated to warn against the intrusion of a little old lady two elderly men and the security personnel have been specifically trained to defend these sites against highly trained paramilitary personnel, not old people. Had highly trained paramilitary personnel tried to infiltrate and take over these harden facilities they would have been immediately detected by the security sensors and quickly apprehended by the highly skilled security personnel; I think.
To address this gap in their security they should hire some greeters from Wal-Mart as security consultants.
And now congress is already "helping"
http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/democrats-y-12-break-highlights-dangers-nnsa-reform-bill/
It appears the NNSA loves to reward incompetence!
August 10, 2012 11:47 AM
Not True! You can understand NNSAs seemingly bizarre funding actions only by understanding the Forrestal Bldg Feds' long-standing jealousy of Los Alamos employees. The animosity of these NNSA misfits borders on psychotic hatred. They have for years delighted in punishing the Los Alamos workers in every way that they can; delaying or denying raise packages, foisting off militaristic demagogues like Nanos on them, canceling the facilities they need to fulfill their mission, or even worse ordering them to be torn down and moved to rot in the Nevada desert, not to mention lobbying hard in Congress to privatize Los Alamos so that NNSA can wield a more punishing contractual whip. The decision not to fund CMRR fits exactly into the pattern of oppression of the past few decades. Easy to understand in context.
Anonymous said...
If you want to see a hillbilly at LLNL, see the Queen of Hillbillies that has ruled over buildings 274 and 271 for years.
August 16, 2012 10:41 AM
Anonymous said...
The Security Director has to be nice to the hillbilly. She might be incompetent and illiterate but don't want her using the d word in a complaint.
August 16, 2012 3:09 PM