This news item has nothing to do with autism, but I found it interesting, and also rather worrying about the state of security in the US:

"Three activists, including an 82-year-old nun, have succeeded in closing temporarily the US government’s only facility for handling, processing and storing weapons-grade uranium.

With the “Nuns on the Bus” tour for social justice in full swing, it seems that social activism is defining a lot of nuns in the US.

The facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, also known as “The Atomic City,” was shut down on Wednesday after at least three protesters, including 82-year-old Megan Rice, cut through perimeter fences to reach the outer wall of a building where highly enriched uranium, a key nuclear bomb component, is stored.

Ironically, WSI Oak Ridge, the private contractor responsible for protecting the facility, is a subsidiary of the world’s biggest security firm G4S, which came up short by 3,500 of the 10,400 security guards it had guaranteed to provide  at the Olympic Games in London.

Time for this security company to do some re-evaluating, maybe?

From rawstory:

The activists, who called themselves Transform Now Plowshares, painted slogans on the wall of the facility, according to government officials.

Although the activists triggered security sensors they were still able to reach the building’s walls before WSI Oak Ridge staff intercepted them.

In a statement the three activists said they had passed through four fences and walked for “over two hours” before reaching the uranium storage building, on which they hung banners and crime-scene tape.

The activists’ spokeswoman, Ellen Barfield, said three were arrested and charged with vandalism and criminal trespass.

The three, identified as Megan Rice, 82, Michael Walli, 63, and Greg Boertje-Obed, 57, are being held in custody and appeared for a hearing on Thursday before a US magistrate judge in Knoxville, Tennessee.

A detention hearing was set for today, when prosecutors must show the defendants are a flight risk and a danger to the community in order to keep them in custody, according to court officials. The trial date is 9 October.

Not surprisingly, a spokeswoman for G4S declined to comment, but government officials said the contents of the facility were not compromised.

But somebody is going to get into big trouble for this security breach.

The security failure was an embarrassment both for the security firm and for the National Nuclear Security Administration, or NNSA, the Energy Department branch that operates U.S. nuclear weapons plants. “It was obviously a pretty serious incident,” NNSA spokesman Joshua McConaha told Reuters.

Peter Stockton, a former congressional investigator and security consultant to the Energy Department, expressed skepticism at government assertions the nuclear material was not at risk.

“It is unbelievable this could happen,” Stockton told Reuters. “The significance is outrageous. If they were terrorists, they could have blown open the door and got inside.”

Wow, that's wild!  

They probably felt that a bunch of old lady nuns weren't much of a threat, so they were just waiting for them to leave.  Never underestimate a crazy old nun!!

I live (relatively) near there.  Frankly, I was proud.  There's really too much apathy in my country about dangerous forms of power.  Yes, the nuns could have gotten inside and stolen a nuke.  Sure.  Just imagine if the nukes hadn't been there in the first place.  

I don't really see any evidence that we need a nuclear deterrent.  We've got a lot of conventional bombs too, as well as a huge leg up on anyone else in drone technology.  Most of these tiny little countries would commit suicide launching just one nuke--and that's without MAD-type doomsday scenarios.  It's the religious terrorists you have to worry about, and you can't nuke them, and even if you could the threat of harm is exactly what gives them their drive.  

Even without weaponisation, nukes are a huge environmental problem.  Currently, our non-weaponized spent nuclear fuel is--guess where--stored inside a gigantic earthquake zone.  **** genius.  

Consider that the current regime makes even coal extremely hazardous--very close to where this protest happened, a retaining pond for hazardous wastes generated by a coal plant collapsed and poisoned a huge tract of land along the river.  Destroyed property values all along there.  Get this--the pond had been inspected repeatedly and was found to consistently violate standards of engineering and legal codes, but was left alone.  The goal of many in our current government is to destroy government oversight of these kinds of things, which makes any industry doubly dangerous.  And now there is talk of increasing something with the persistence of uranium.

Hey, nuns rule.  Considering the current fight between the Vatican and the nuns of America, I would have to say that nuns are the one thing that can save the church from itself.

The people in charge of the facility security should be fired. What if say other people got in. Not nun activists but professionals. I mean if they can get in, shut it down but get arrested imagine what a professional can do.

We have really good security theatre in the United States. Sadly, actual security is terrible.

Scary... If they had been terrorists and had "blew it up" or caused a large meltdown that would have probably effected my area too. They need to get real security.

Interesting not only that the focus is on the nun - the other two peace activists were men -  and that it seems to be the lax security which is getting all the attention, rather than the fact that the US has nuclear weapons.  This protest wasn't about changing public perceptions of nuns, or elderly women, nor was it about the failings of a private security firm.  

It was a protest against warfare and weapons in general, and nuclear weapons in particular.  

Good for them!

We all know that the US has nuclear weapons. Apparently, we need enough to destroy the world four times over in case anyone decides to attack us. Comforting thought, isn't it?

Well, shi*.

Especially for a guy afraid of being blown up at the 2012 olympics...

I don't agree with the Catholic church but I do agree with these activists and the nun..

Any war that is won with ant kind of Nuclear weapons is not a real victory! It's cheating! Just like how the US cheated when they nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

To me any country that has a Nuclear weapon who bombs some third world country or any country that doesn't have one is a cheat!

It's just like if a group went back in time with Uzi's and/or other automatic weapons to the Civil War era and wiped out the Confederates solders or the Unions...  

I wish Einstein never did help develop the atomic bomb back then....

I wish all nuclear weapons would be disarmed. A nuclear war could destroy the world.

Cheating, and mass murder.

My belief is that war in general is legalized mass murder. Nukes elevate that exponentially.

Nukes are also expensive and unnecessary. When a bomb is built, it either sits around, gathering dust, or it gets blown up. Either way, we don't get anything for our money. When a single country is spending more on defense than the entire rest of the world combined, it's probably time to start looking at where we can cut back. Especially when so many people are saying that the US is spending too much in general.

1. USA
2. Iran
3. Israel
4. Pakistan

The list goes on

and

on

and

on