Displaying items by tag: catholic protest at y12

News Sentinel: Nun who served time after Oak Ridge weapons protest dies in Pennsylvania

Sister Megan Rice, who along with two others were prosecuted by the federal government after breaking into the Y-12 nuclear weapons complex in Oak Ridge, died of congestive heart failure Oct. 10 in Rosemont, Pennsylvania.

Rice, a member of the order of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, penetrated the secure perimeter of Y-12 in July 2012 along with two other Catholic activists for prayers and protests outside a bunker containing uranium, according to the Associated Press via the News Sentinel. The incident prompted numerous inquiries about the security of Y-12 and put the inherent danger of nuclear armament in the media spotlight.

The trio was charged with felony sabotage but served only two years of their federal prison terms.

“While testifying during her jury trial, Rice defended her decision to break into the Oak Ridge uranium facility as an attempt to stop “manufacturing that...can only cause death,” according to a trial transcript.'

“I had to do it,” she said of her decision to break the law.

“My guilt is that I waited 70 years to be able to speak what I knew in my conscience.”