Anti-nuclear activists, professors and students criticized the University of Colorado’s Board of Regents at a public forum on the Boulder campus Thursday night over CU’s pending partnership with Lockheed Martin and the University of Texas to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
“I question both the legitimacy of the partnership and the process,” said Adrienne Anderson, former CU environmental studies instructor and corporate whistle-blower whose contract wasn’t renewed last spring. Anderson was one of 15 people who spoke to the crowd of about 50 during the public hearing.
In August, CU roused public protest when it announced plans to team with Lockheed Martin and the University of Texas, along with at least 17 other universities, in a bid to manage the nuclear weapons research lab in New Mexico.
In May, the Department of Energy called for bids from private contractors for the first time, after announcing it would not renew its contract with the University of California, which has managed operations since Los Alamos opened in 1943.
CU would provide nonclassified, nonweapons-related research and analysis under a contract with Lockheed Martin, the company heading the bid.
At Thursday’s meeting, the overwhelming majority of attendees and speakers were opposed to any affiliation between CU and Los Alamos, even if in a nonweapons-building capacity.
“I do not want Colorado involved with another Rocky Flats,” said Erin Hamby, a CU graduate and activist with Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in Boulder.
Regents will consider Thursday night’s testimony at their Wednesday meeting.
