Duluth man, 2 others convicted after nuclear weapons facility break-in

A Duluth man and two other protesters have been convicted of interfering with national security after they broke into a nuclear weapons facility in Tennessee and defaced a uranium processing plant, the Associated Press reports.

Jurors deliberated only about 2½ hours, finding the three protesters guilty of a charge of sabotaging the plant and second charge of damaging federal property at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge in July.

Last summer, the U.S. government's only facility for handling, processing and storing weapons-grade uranium was temporarily closed after after the activists breached four security fences during the break-in.

On Wednesday, 83-year-old nun Megan Rice, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed, a house painter from Duluth, testified, saying they have no regrets.

Boertje-Obed explained why they sprayed baby bottles full of human blood on the outside of the facility, the AP reported.

“The reason for the baby bottles was to represent that the blood of children is spilled by these weapons,” he said.

All three defendants said they think divine forces guided them from the perimeter of the complex through the darkness to the enriched uranium plant.

“I believe it was clearly a miracle,” Boertje-Obed said.