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Professors Debate Morality of UC-Run Nuclear Weapons Labs
Contracts on All Three Labs up for Bidding In Next Two Years
by Adeel Iqbal, April 6. 2004

With UC's management of three national laboratories on the line, professors from both sides of the nuclear arms debate went head to head yesterday afternoon in Moffitt Library, questioning whether UC should bid to continue running laboratories that produce nuclear weapons.

A UC Berkeley nuclear engineering professor and the president of an anti- nuclear weapons group weighed the university's duty to serve national security by running the labs against the moral questions of producing nuclear weapons.

UC has run three national laboratories, including scandal-plagued Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, for more than 50 years.

Per Peterson, who chairs the campus's nuclear engineering department, argued that maintaining research and managerial control of the three laboratories is a necessity and a requirement.

“The principle that UC manages the labs and should continue to manage the labs is the aspect of national service,” he said.

But for David Krieger, president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and a professor at UC Santa Barbara, the question was not about maintaining laboratory control, but about conducting nuclear weapons research.

The atomic bombs dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were developed at Los Alamos, Krieger said, adding that designing weapons does not fall within the mission of the university.

“It's just simply the wrong thing to do. A great university should not be involved in designing, developing and improving weapons of mass destruction,” he said.

Running a nuclear weapons program could place national security in jeopardy, Krieger said.

“By continuing to develop and improve ( nuclear weapons ), we are actually instigating other countries to take similar steps and undermining the security of the nation,” he said.

But the labs have been key sources of education and employment for students within and outside the UC system, said Janis Ingham, chair of the University Committee on Research Policy.

“The advantage to some students would be the opportunity of using the labs in their research and being ultimately employed by the labs,” she said.

Balancing the issues will be the task of the Academic Senate and UC Board of Regents.

Faculty across the UC system will vote in an online poll this May on whether UC should bid.

The Board of Regents will have the final say on the issue once the Department of Energy opens next year's competition.

While the competition for Berkeley lab is expected to move quickly, a number of potential contenders, including the University of Texas, have emerged to battle for stewardship of Los Alamos.

Originally published by The Daily Californian.

Learn more :: Media Coverage :: Professors debate morality of uc run labs