Sister Megan Rice, a peace activist whose 2012 break-in to the Y-12 National Security Complex spurred an overhaul of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s physical security apparatus, died Oct. 10 at 91, her order said.
Rise was born in 1930 and joined the Society of Holy Child Jesus in 1947. After breaking into Y-12 at age 82, she served two years of a three-year prison sentence.
The break-in, and the ease with which it happened, resulted in the firing of then-Y-12 security services contractor WSI Oak Ridge, which was owned by the company now known as Centerra. At National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) headquarters in Washington, Douglas Fremont lost his job as the agency’s security chief, though he remained with the agency and was at deadline chief of staff for the administrator.
Rice was not the only nun who went to jail for protesting nuclear weapons at Y-12. In 2010, Sister Ardeth Platte, another nun, was caught trespassing at the site and also received a prison sentence. Platte died in 2020 at 82.
