Three protesters were arrested at the Y-12 nuclear weapons facility in Tennessee Saturday, accused of cutting through multiple security fences and entering a secure area.
Two men and an 82-year-old nun and peace activist remained in custody Monday after police alleged they spray painted messages and poured blood on the Y-12 Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility. It stores bomb-grade uranium, and a National Nuclear Security Agency spokesman told the Knoxville News Sentinel the trespassing incident was unprecedented.
The newspaper also noted that security contractor WSI recently planned to cut about 50 security-related jobs at Oak Ridge, Tenn., nuclear facilities, including Y-12.
The site was built as part of the Manhattan Project and separated the uranium for the Little Boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. It produced "secondaries" for nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War and has since taken on missions related to nonproliferation, stockpile stewardship and naval propulsion.