Demonstrators at nuclear plants remember Hiroshima bomb drop

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. -- About 300 protesters marched on the Oak Ridge nuclear weapons plant Sunday, waving banners and carrying ashes to symbolize the victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

"It is fire and damnation. You are protecting a death camp," protester Erik Johnson shouted at two dozen security guards watching from the other side of a barricade at the entrance to the Y-12 facility.

Johnson and five others were arrested for blocking the roadway.

About 50 veterans and plant supporters gathered for a counter demonstration, with one shouting over a bullhorn: "You lose, we win, the plant is still open."

The Y-12 plant made uranium for the "Little Boy" bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945, near the end of World War II. The protest marked that anniversary and Y-12's continuing role in making parts for every nuclear warhead in the U.S. arsenal.

'Never again'

Also Sunday, hundreds rallied outside the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 35 miles east of San Francisco, to protest the Bush administration's move to develop new nuclear weapons. There were no reports of arrests.

Some protesters held signs that read "Hiroshima Never Again," and "Abolish Nuclear Weapons Now."

"When you have an administration openly talking about a possible use of so-called tactical nuclear weapons, we have to be out to talk about stopping it in places like Livermore lab," said protester Gamu Smith.

Demonstrators lashed out against the government's ongoing research project on a new Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, a nuclear bomb that could destroy deeply buried targets but also create radioactive fallout.

"The U.S. nuclear policy is leading the world in exactly the wrong direction," said Nathan Britton of California Peace Action. "Global disarmament starts at home."