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NEWS
| april 20, 2004
Lecture
Lab involvement to be debated
The pros and cons of the UT System
managing Los Alamos are to be discussed Thursday.
By Josh
Bohling
The Shorthorn News Editor
Prostitution.
That’s what State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Tarrant County, compares
nuclear research at Los Alamos National Laboratory to, and he’s
coming to the university Thursday to make the case that the UT System
should have nothing to do with managing the facility.
The Student Peace Action Network has invited Burnam to lecture at
4 p.m. in 108 University Hall. He will be followed by an ecological
slideshow by history professor Jerry Rodnitzky.
The university’s nanotechnology research could be used to
create low-grade nuclear weapons if the UT System wins a bid to
manage Los Alamos, Burnam said.
“Some academics may laugh,” he said. “But that
is absolutely the intent.”
On Feb. 4, the UT System Board of Regents approved plans to bid
for management of the Santa Fe, N.M. facility. The lab developed
the first atomic bombs during World War II. In 2002, 80 percent
of its budget went to nuclear programs and disposal.
“Defense dollars are used to leverage what kind of research
is done,” Burnam said. “That’s a form of prostitution
the UT System, and Texas taxpayers shouldn’t be contributing
to.”
Organizer John Dickson, a history senior, said that if the UT System
wins the contract, he has no doubt UTA nanotechnology research could
be used to further the creation of nuclear weapons.
“I think students know, but they don’t seem to care,”
he said. “That’s too bad.”
But Rodnitzky said he sees nothing wrong with the system managing
the lab and expects to spar with Burnam over the issue.
“I understand the arguments against it, but there are better
reasons to get involved,” he said, citing important research
advances over the past decades that have grown from Los Alamos research,
including super computers, rocketry and mapping of the human genome.
Rodnitzky said someone has to manage the lab, and he would rather
it be an academic institution than a corporate or government interest.
“If there is going to be a whistle blower, it’s more
likely to be an academic,” he said. “And if it should
be academically-run, why shouldn’t it be us?”
Burnam said the nuclear research is just too detrimental to the
planet and the human gene pool, regardless of what positives may
come from the facility.
“Something good could come out of someone’s death today,”
he said. “But that doesn’t change how overwhelmingly
negative it is.”
The event is expected to last two hours and includes time for audience
questions.
CORRECTION
This story incorrectly identified the location
of Los Alamos National Laboratory. The lab is in Los Alamos, N.M.
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