From 1944, the Y12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, TN, secretly developed and produced enriched uranium for the nuclear weapons that the U.S. military dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945, during the last days of World War II. The atomic bomb devastated the city, killing as many as 166,000 by the end of the year. Since the end of the Cold War, the Y12 Complex has served as the preeminent producer of nuclear weapons components and weapons-grade fuel storage. It is the most highly secured nuclear facility in the United States.
The Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance (OREPA) was formed in the early 1980s with the goal of halting nuclear weapons production at the Y12 Complex through nonviolent direct action. It became one of the foremost nuclear abolition organizations in the United States during the late Cold War. Over time, OREPA, under the guidance of Ralph Hutchison, compiled a significant record of the organization’s direct nonviolent actions as well as a dossier of information on the facility, particularly in the 1980s, when Cold War arsenals topped 61,000 nuclear weapons — 99 percent of which were held by the United States and Soviet Union.
The organization gave its archives in October 2023 to the Peace Resource Center at Wilmington College because of the PRC’s mission to bear “witness to the historical experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombing survivors and the legacies of nonviolent activists touched by the horrors of nuclear war.” The PRC’s student staff completed the archival processing of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance collection this spring. Some 285 linear feet of materials, including an extensive collection of photographs, will now be available for researchers, according to Dr. Tanya Maus, director of the Peace Resource and Quaker Heritage Centers at WC.
“The PRC is honored that OREPA donated its archives to us, and we are thrilled to make this historically significant collection available to researchers,” Maus added. “It’s even more meaningful that Wilmington College students, such as history major Ben Dabe, played a significant role in making this happen.”
The Peace Resource Center serves as the only academic center and archives in the United States wholly devoted to the human experience of nuclear war through the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The center works with student staff to carry out the preservation of historical materials and create programming for the campus and community regarding the need for global peace and the elimination of nuclear weapons.
TOP PHOTO: History major Ben Dabe cuts the ceremonial ribbon proclaiming the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance collection open and available starting this spring.
PICTURED: PRC Director Tanya Maus (LEFT) and an Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance representative sign the deed of gift document, which turned over the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance Archives to the Peace Resource Center.