On Wednesday night in Ypsilanti Township, citizens confronted University of Michigan representatives about the proposed $1.2 billion hyperscale data center being built in partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratories. During the town hall meeting, residents expressed concerns over electricity costs, water usage, noise pollution, and the potential use of the facility for nuclear weapons research. Despite efforts by faculty director Patricia Hurn and project lead engineer Steven Ceccio to address these issues, the audience remained unsatisfied and critical, with one resident questioning the size comparison presented by Ceccio.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-12,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Representatives from the University of Michigan faced tough questions and a lot of vitriol from the citizens of Ypsilanti Township Wednesday night.
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Representatives → face → Township
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.
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residents → partner → Township
On Wednesday night the University hosted a town hall meant to ameliorate people’s anger and concerns.
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University → host → anger
It didn’t work.
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It → work → ?
LANL and U of M want to build a $1.2 billion 220,000 hyperscale data center in Ypsilanti Township.
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LANL → want → Township
The residents are worried about electricity costs, water usage, and noise like other communities across the country considering data centers.
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residents → worry → centers
But citizens and leaders of the Township are also worried that this particular data center would further nuclear weapon research.
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center → further → research
They’ve also said the University has condescended to them during the entire process, lied, and ignored them.
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University → say → 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.
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M → judge → anger
U of M faculty director Patricia Hurn delivered a prepared statement while people in the audience shouted at her.
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people → deliver → 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.
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she → go → crowd
“Many of us are interested in finding the generalized cure for cancer,” Hurn said.
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Hurn → find → cancer
The crowd laughed and mocked her.
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crowd → laugh → her
She pressed on.
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She → press → ?
“And many of us want to drop infant mortality.
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many → want → mortality
Some of us want clean energy.
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Some → want → energy
“How about healthcare?” Someone shouted from the crowd.
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Someone → shout → 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.
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she → go → computing
Steven Ceccio, the project’s lead engineer, attempted to address some of the practical concerns surrounding the project.
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Ceccio → attempt → 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.
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that → say → Township
Later in the night, a man named Andy called Ceccio out.
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man → name → Ceccio
He said he worked in data centers all around the country.
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he → say → 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.
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that → think → Saline
That’s an aberration.
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That → ’ → ?
That’s not a normal sized data center.
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That → ’ → ?
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.
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Andy → compare → bracket
“I’ve been to beautiful data centers, absolutely gorgeous, they poured tons of money into them.
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they → pour → them
But they’re still loud.
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they → ’re → ?
And they still have emissions and they still have generators,” Andy added.
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Andy → have → generators
“They don’t belong in residential areas next to schools and apartments.
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They → belong → schools
When you go to these facilities they’re in the middle of nowhere because that’s where they belong.”
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they → go → middle
Throughout the evening, representatives from the University avoided calling the project a data center.
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representatives → avoid → project
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.
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Ceccio → ’ → research
Los Alamos did not attend the meeting.
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Alamos → attend → meeting
“If Los Alamos cared so much why aren’t they here?” A woman named Jamie asked at the town hall.
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woman → care → hall
The laboratory sent a letter to be read at the meeting in lieu of attending in person, meant to address community concerns.
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laboratory → send → concerns
The letter called supercomputing an essential tool.
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letter → call → supercomputing
“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.
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it → allow → precision
LANL stressed that there would be no plutonium on site in Ypsialanti Michigan and that no weapons would be produced there.
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weapons → stress → Ypsialanti
“Instead, the facility would use advanced computing to model complex systems, run sophisticated simulations, and analyze massive datasets,” the letter said.
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letter → use → datasets
…and 51 more, not listed.
