NS&D Monitor
10/24/2014
Gov’t Responds in Appeal by Convicted Y-12 Protesters
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Theodore, who prosecuted the trio of elderly peace activists that broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex in July 2012, is countering their appeal and arguing that their actions were indeed worthy of the sabotage charges brought against them. The federal government’s response came Oct. 22 as the deadline neared for filing motions with the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. Theodore’s 53-page motion countered the arguments for appeal, point by point, with most of the attention focused on the felony conviction of attempting to injure or interrupt the nation’s defense—which falls under the Sabotage Act and was considered a controversial use of the charge in some quarters, especially the peace and disarmament community.
Protesters Said Attorneys ‘Distorted’ Sabotage Act
In early August, attorneys for the protesters—Michael Walli, Sister Megan Rice and Greg Boertje-Obed—filed their appeal with the Sixth Circuit and said it was only through “distorted and unmoored interpretation of the Sabotage Act” that the government was able to obtain convictions on the felony charge that brought sentences of three to five years in federal prisons for the three defendants.
Theodore said the convictions on sabotage were justified based on the actions of the three activists who broke into Y-12 on July 28, 2012, cutting through four fences and carrying out a series of protest actions—that included hammering at the corner of the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility and splashing it with blood. “Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, the evidence was sufficient for a rational trier of fact to find that the defendants intended to injure, interfere with, or obstruct the national defense,” Theodore said in the response summary.
Gov’t: Protesters Wanted to Disrupt Work at Y-12
The federal prosecutor, who specializes in national security cases, said the evidence “clearly established that Defendants wanted nuclear disarmament generally and wanted Y-12’s operations to cease.” He said it also showed the three “sought to advance that objective by breaking into and damaging property at Y-12, a nuclear weapons production facility that is a unique and critical part of the United States’ national defense.”
Theodore said the jury “could reasonably infer” that the protesters intended that their actions would disrupt operations at Y-12 in some way, either by delaying construction on the Uranium Processing Facility or by “diverting resources for security and repairing damage, or by drawing publicity to the intrusion.” He also said a “rational juror” could also note that “because of Y-12’s critical and unique role in producing and maintaining nuclear weapons for the national defense” that the three intruders’ actions also “constituted an intent to injure, interfere with, or obstruct the national defense.”
Reference to 9/11 Defended by Prosecutor
Defense attorneys argued in their appeal that the U.S. attorneys in the case were guilty of prosecutorial misconduct, partly because of a reference to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in closing arguments at the trial in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. Theodore said the prosecution of the three was parallel to the jury instructions for the sabotage charge in the case. He also said the 9/11 reference was not inappropriate. “The prosecutor’s isolated reference, during closing argument, to enhanced security after 9/11 was an appropriate analogy to show that even illegal actions can result in positive change. Given the context of the entire trial, that comment was neither improper nor flagrant, nor could it have misled the jury,” Theodore said in his response.
He also said the complaint regarding the courtroom introduction of prior convictions of Walli and Boertje-Obed was not out of bounds, given the context, and that the court did not “abuse its discretion” in allowing that. “The court gave a limiting instruction to the jury and directed the United States not to introduce the nature of the prior conviction. Defendant Boertje-Obed stated that those measures adequately resolved his concern about the admissibility of his prior conviction, so he has arguably waived his current challenge to it,” Theodore wrote. “Defendant Walli has plainly waived this issue because he preemptively introduced his conviction during his direct testimony.”
Alarm Response Training Facility Opens at Y-12
Anne Harrington, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation, was in Oak Ridge this week for the ribbon-cutting of a new facility—the Alarm Response Training Academy—that replaced an older one damaged over the winter when a pipe burst and flooded the premises. She also was on hand for an exercise that took advantage of some of Y-12’s training capabilities.
Harrington said Oak Ridge plays a “huge role” in the government’s efforts to stem the proliferation of nuclear weapons and keep radioactive materials out the wrong hands. “You’ve seen a little bit of what Y-12 does here,” she said following the exercise, noting that much of the highly enriched uranium that’s been recovered from foreign countries in recent years ends up being managed at Y-12. Over the past seven years, more than 3,400 safety and security professionals, law-enforcement officers, and other would-be responders have taken part in the training sessions at Y-12 to better their knowledge of threats and learn how to react. Participants have come from 44 states and 18 countries, the NNSA stated.
Besides its role in manufacturing and refurbishing nuclear warhead parts, Y-12 has become a national center for counter-terrorism training. Taking part at this week’s training program were representatives from the Puget Sound Blood Center in Seattle; the University of Pennsylvania, the Benaroya Research Institute in Seattle; Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., and a delegation of police officers from Sri Lanka. Toby Williams, Y-12’s manager for global security analysis and training, said some of the exercises involve actual radioactive materials—usually just enough to trigger alarms and give the trainees the experience of a real-life threat.
Spallation Neutron Source Back Up and Running
The Spallation Neutron Source is up and running again, and that’s a huge relief for Oak Ridge National Laboratory after its key user facility was down and out for more than a month. Kevin Jones, director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Research Acceleration Division, said neutron production resumed shortly before 6 a.m. on Oct. 19.
The SNS is one of the world’s destination sites for research with streams of neutrons that explore materials in a unique way. It attracts scientists from around the United States and abroad, and the unexpected shutdown threw a wrench into the scheduling of experiments. About 150 experiments reportedly had to be reassigned. The Spallation Neutron Source was shut down in early September, only a few weeks after it had been restarted following the annual summer outage for maintenance and repairs.
Restart Occurred Ahead of Schedule
The initial shutdown event was due to the premature failure of mercury target. The stainless steel target vessel—each of which costs about $1 million—was replaced after only a few weeks of wear. But even before the SNS could be restarted, another problem erupted—this time a water leak in a section of the linear accelerator.
The SNS team worked virtually around the clock to get things going again and make up lost time for researchers. Jones confirmed that the restart actually occurred about a week ahead of the target date of Oct. 27. “We were presented with fewer unknowns than expected,” Jones said. Also, the refurbishment of the front-end radio-frequency (RF) accelerator components were conditioned to “acceptable levels” sooner than expected, he said.
With restart comes a lot of rescheduling. According to Jones, the first users will be those within driving distances of Oak Ridge because the travel arrangements will be simpler. “Our users that were originally scheduled on and after Oct. 28 were not affected and plan to be here for their experiments,” Jones said. “We will run our planned and published schedule through Dec. 23.” The ORNL official said the team is currently evaluating options to recover some of this fiscal year’s lost time by modifying the operating schedule after Jan. 1.
High Flux Isotope Reactor Restarted
Following one of the two longest maintenance outages of the year, the 85-megawatt High Flux Isotope Reactor is back to work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Tim Powers, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s research reactor director, said the 38-day outage was “very busy” and equally productive. Workers installed a third digital instrument that monitors the neutron power level in the reactor core; replaced cables that supply power to the Cooling Tower Fans; and performed surveillance tests and inspections on a number of systems, including emergency power supply, ventilation filtration and reactor protection.
Preventive maintenance work was conducted on pressurizer pumps and flow-control valves; primary water cleanup pumps; and the helium refrigerator for the Cold Source (a task that’s required after every 5,000 hours of operation). The current operating cycle is due to end on Oct. 31, which will be followed by another 18-day period for refueling and maintenance.
