Ypsilanti Township Residents Protest Nuclear AI Data Center Proposal

Representatives from the University of Michigan faced tough questions and a lot of vitriol from the citizens of Ypsilanti Township Wednesday night. The University partnered with America’s nuclear weapons scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL) to build a hyperscale data center in the Township and residents are pissed.

On Wednesday night the University hosted a town hall meant to ameliorate people’s anger and concerns. It didn’t work.

LANL and U of M want to build a $1.2 billion 220,000 hyperscale data center in Ypsilanti Township. The residents are worried about electricity costs, water usage, and noise like other communities across the country considering data centers. But citizens and leaders of the Township are also worried that this particular data center would further nuclear weapon research. They’ve also said the University has condescended to them during the entire process, lied, and ignored them.

Judging by footage of the Wednesday night’s town hall, U of M didn’t win anyone over and openly deepened citizens’ anger and mistrust. U of M faculty director Patricia Hurn delivered a prepared statement while people in the audience shouted at her. “This facility is going to be used for many different purposes including improving cancer care, strengthening the power grid, accelerating drug discovery, and sustainable computing,” she said over jeers from the crowd.

“Many of us are interested in finding the generalized cure for cancer,” Hurn said. The crowd laughed and mocked her. She pressed on. “And many of us want to drop infant mortality. Some of us want clean energy.

“How about healthcare?” Someone shouted from the crowd.

“All of those things are going to require — and some of you are listening to me so I’ll just keep talking to you — some of us want those answers and we know that to get them is going to take really strong and big abilities to do computing,” she said.

Steven Ceccio, the project’s lead engineer, attempted to address some of the practical concerns surrounding the project. “The project is tremendously smaller in scope and size than these commercial data centers,” he said, pointing to a slide that compared the size of the proposed LANL data center to The Barn in nearby Saline Township, a massive $56 billion 1.4 gigawatt OpenAI project.

Later in the night, a man named Andy called Ceccio out. He said he worked in data centers all around the country. “I think it’s convenient that this is 1/20th the size of a data center when you’re comparing it to The Barn that’s going over in Saline. That’s an aberration. That’s not a normal sized data center. When you compare the data center that you’re about to build to the average data center in the United States, you’re at the very top of that bracket,” Andy said.

“I’ve been to beautiful data centers, absolutely gorgeous, they poured tons of money into them. But they’re still loud. And they still have emissions and they still have generators,” Andy added. “They don’t belong in residential areas next to schools and apartments. When you go to these facilities they’re in the middle of nowhere because that’s where they belong.”

Throughout the evening, representatives from the University avoided calling the project a data center. “The biggest difference besides its size is its purpose. It’s really a scientific computing center, it’s not a commercial activity — Los Alamos and U of M are nonprofit activities and we’re using this to advance scientific research and development,” Ceccio said.

Los Alamos did not attend the meeting. “If Los Alamos cared so much why aren’t they here?” A woman named Jamie asked at the town hall.

The laboratory sent a letter to be read at the meeting in lieu of attending in person, meant to address community concerns. The letter called supercomputing an essential tool. “It allows researchers to model, analyze, and test complex systems, and it powers discovery faster and with more precision than our Manhattan project founders could have thought possible,” it said.

LANL stressed that there would be no plutonium on site in Ypsialanti Michigan and that no weapons would be produced there. “Instead, the facility would use advanced computing to model complex systems, run sophisticated simulations, and analyze massive datasets,” the letter said. LANL pointed to its work modeling wildfire behavior, tracking diseases, and strengthening the power grid.

But LANL also conceded that the data center would also be used as part of nuclear weapons research and development. “As part of Los Alamos’ national security mission, some computational research conducted using the facility could relate to nuclear modernization,” it said. This work uses modeling and simulation to help scientists assess the safety, security, and reliability of the nation’s existing nuclear stockpile without nuclear testing. It is computational research — not the manufacturing, sample, testing, or production of nuclear weapons.”

In several public meetings of the Ypsilanti Township board, both residents and leaders have speculated that the Los Alamos data center might be a target in a drone strike. Douglas Winters, the attorney for Ypsilanti Township, even called the proposed site a high-value target. “It is important to emphasize that neither Los Alamos, the University of Michigan, nor any state or federal agency has classified it that way,” LANL’s letter said, adding that the Township board and city attorney had “created that terminology without basis.”

“It’s kind of a silly thing to say that, somehow, I made up the term ‘high-value target,’” Winters told 404 Media. “Or, somehow, they don’t recognize that Los Alamos — the worldwide name associated with the atomic bomb [...] would not be considered a high-value target when they have $1.2 billion worth of computers that they describe as being the biggest, baddest, and fastest in the world.”

Anger built as the town hall went on.

Jennifer Burnside said she lives “roughly two miles from the proposed site.” She said she had worked at the University for 10 years and was shocked at how it was behaving. “There is an outside power that is coming into a community that does not play by the same rules. They’re not beholden to the community and do not have to answer for their actions,” she said. “It feels like we’re being taken advantage of. We don’t want this data center and we should not have it forced upon us.”

“I live about two and a half miles from the proposed site in a fairly poor neighborhood. Most of us couldn’t afford to move out if we wanted to if this thing is as heinous as we think it will be,” a man named Corey said. “I think the thrust of your argument this evening has been: ‘You’ve heard that it’ll be really really really really bad. It’ll only be really bad.’ And that’s not good enough for us.”

Corey added that the University had made themselves into cartoon-style mustache twirling villains. “There is no trust, we don’t believe you,” he said. “We don’t want Los Alamos here, they’re one of the biggest villains of the 20th century,” he said. “We want them far far away from us and everyone else.”

“You guys know where you fucked up, right? You didn’t do this two years ago. Why didn’t you approach the community first?” A Township resident named Eric said. “You’re asking us to come aboard when the water’s already poisoned. No pun intended.”

Ypsilanti Township resident and University of Michigan graduate Shalina Nicohl Rankin said that the University needed to show up with the board of regents next time. “This is our home. We said loudly and clearly that we do not want you here. We did not invite you,” she said. “I was taught leaders and best [a reference to the University’s motto]. Leaders and best, but you crawl into bed with Los Alamos, one of the most despicable companies on the face of the Earth. Who is known for giving people cancer and developing nuclear bombs and you bring it into our backyard.”

Fielding questions about nuclear weapons research, engineer Ceccio lamented that the weapons existed. “I would love to live in a world where we have no nuclear weapons. I would love to live in a world where we have no nuclear proliferation [...] and I would do everything I can to make that world happen,” he said. “But right now, some of the institutions of our country are here for our national security and Los Alamos is one of them. And I, for one, am proud to be part of them to help in this important mission.”

The people of Ypsilanti Township were not proud and made it clear that they did not feel like their concerns were considered. The final speaker of the evening was Township supervisor Brenda Stumbo. She said the University had repeatedly lied to the Township’s citizens and leaders. “It started with a lie,” Stumbo said. “People are leaving. They're selling their homes because of the thought of Los Alamos being here. That’s a fact. The emotion and the rage is fear. We don’t deserve this. Please, change your mind.”

The town hall ran three hours and the University has promised to hold another October first. Winters told 404 Media he wouldn’t be attending. “Maybe they should come to our September 15 board meeting,” he said.

The University of Michigan did not return 404 Media’s request for comment.