Global Security Newswire

The Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee has patched an opening in a fence apparently left by antiwar advocates during a July break-in, the National Nuclear Security Administration informed the Knoxville News Sentinel on Thursday.

The newspaper earlier this week reported the damage had gone unfixed in the months since the three members of the antinuclear group Transform Now Plowshares made their way through the complex and into Y-12's "Protected Area," which houses atomic arms activities and bomb-grade uranium storage. The intruders allegedly poured blood, put up signs and painted on the sides of buildings before they were apprehended in the area.

Nuclear agency spokesman Steven Wyatt declined to confirm one trespasser's assertion that the group had created the opening.

Wyatt stated: "The perimeter fence is a boundary marker and is posted against trespassers. It is not designed to prevent individuals from crossing it, and it is not considered a security measure. In some places it is six-foot chain link, in other places it is a four-foot barbed wire cattle fence. Fences of this type along site boundaries are common at [Energy Department]/NNSA facilities across the country and are in place as a method for notifying the public of a site boundary. The cut in the fence has been repaired."