Learn more :: Article Archives :: Survey SaysSurvey says there is dissent regarding UC lab management A recent survey completed by 2,279 UCR lecturers and librarians depicted a prevalent disapproval in the renewal of contracts to manage nuclear weapons labs. The three labs, the existence of which many students are unaware of, are New Mexico's Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and the Lawrence Berkeley energy research center. The latter is solely involved in research, but the other two are the nation's premier nuclear weapons facilities. The UC has always run the 50-year-old Los Alamos lab since its creation when the U.S. specifically recruited UC faculty to help construct the atom bomb, a decision that accelerated the rise of the system's reputation. While 58% of lecturers and librarians in the more recent survey felt insecure about the notion of the UC making a bid for the labs, an almost identical survey on the same topic conducted in May garnered reverse results. According to the May survey, 67% of those surveyed were actually in favor of the UC bidding for the Los Alamos lab. Perhaps in the time separating these similar surveys, news of unbelievable scandals became prevalent. One specific example is an incident involving the Lawrence Livermore lab, a laboratory known for maintaining extremely sensitive nuclear secrets, in which a set of keys in addition to a security badge disappeared without being reported for weeks. Some years prior to this incident in April of 2003, several computer hard drives maintaining nuclear secrets also vanished at the Los Alamos lab. This year, a skeleton key was lost at Livermore, forcing the facility to spend more than $1 million to replace all of the facility's locks. As the strikes of potentially dangerous lack of professionalism began to add up, one incident propelled the seemingly innocent mistakes into a James Bond film. Lawrence Livermore's Head of Counterintelligence William Cleveland Jr. had a sexual relationship with the supposed Chinese double agent Katrina Leung who was also bedding former FBI Agent William Smith. Another employee working closely with Chinese intelligence was said to have close links to the Taliban. These unforgettable slips of security were evidence enough of the need to open bidding to these labs for the first time in their history, and while it appears that the UC will struggle to keep them for what they deem learning opportunities, the prestige of running the nations top nuclear weapons labs is too prestigious a title to be so easily discarded. However, bidding has opened an instructive discussion on the topic of nuclear weapons labs. At one regents meeting covered by the San Francisco Chronicle, UC Santa Barbara's Nobel Prize winning physicist Walter Kohn suggested refocusing the UC's energy on the pressing problem of global warming. Kohn argued the case that UC involvement in nuclear weapons is totally contrary to the system's criteria for public service. Currently, the UC is being advised to find a corporate bidding partner, but nothing will be firmly stated until January contract proposals are released by the U.S. Energy Department. The production of nuclear weapons seems like an issue that is not relevant to the UC's goals of higher public education, yet UC President Dynes made a thought-provoking comment in the recent regents meeting when stating his original discomfort with the issue was settled by one dramatic idea. "I would rather have some influence over the decisions than be a bystander," said Dynes. But at this point the UC's embarrassing inability to handle the important of documents is enough evidence that the labs should no longer remain in our hands. Furthermore the secretive nature of the proceedings at these labs makes it impossible for students or faculty to have any say in future proceedings. Originally published by the Highlander (the UC Riverside student newspaper) Learn more :: Article Archives :: Survey Says |
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