{"id":377569,"date":"2026-09-11T07:28:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T14:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/?p=377569"},"modified":"2026-09-11T07:28:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T14:28:06","slug":"university-of-michigans-1-2-billion-computing-center-sparks-backlash-los-alamos-link-fuels-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/university-of-michigans-1-2-billion-computing-center-sparks-backlash-los-alamos-link-fuels-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Michigan\u2019s $1.2 billion computing center sparks backlash: Los Alamos link fuels protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

The University of Michigan\u2019s proposed research computing center in Ypsilanti Township, priced between $1.2 billion<\/strong> and $1.25 billion, is running into heavy local pushback. A recent town hall turned ugly fast, with jeers from the crowd, repeated interruptions, and residents accusing officials of keeping key details from the public.<\/p>\n

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For the 144-acre site on Textile Road, University of Michigan planning documents lay out two main pieces<\/strong>: a 240,000-square-foot federal facility to be developed with Los Alamos National Laboratory, and a separate 50,000-square-foot university center. The university says that center would support work in medicine, engineering, energy, national security, cancer care, grid research, and sustainable computing.<\/p>\n\n

People who live nearby are paying close attention, and for good reason. Residents say the benefits being promised don’t come close to easing their concerns about water use, noise, emissions, traffic, pressure on local infrastructure, and the project’s power needs<\/a><\/strong>. Those needs start at 50 megawatts and could climb to 100, based on the project plans, with a dedicated DTE Energy substation required. That puts it near the top end of U.S. data-center-scale power use.<\/p>\n\n

A lot of the distrust comes back to Los Alamos National Laboratory and its role in nuclear weapons work. Officials have said the Ypsilanti Township site would only be used to run simulations on existing weapons, and that no nuclear or other hazardous materials would be stored there. Even so, township leaders have imposed a 180-day moratorium<\/strong> that affects the substation, following an earlier one-year water moratorium. The University of Michigan, for its part, says the building would be fully electric, designed to LEED standards, and produce zero operational emissions.<\/p>\n\n

If you want to follow where this goes next, the paper trail is there in township records and University of Michigan filings.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The University of Michigan\u2019s proposed research computing center in Ypsilanti Township, priced between $1.2 billion and $1.25 billion, is running into heavy local pushback. A recent town hall turned ugly fast, with jeers from the crowd, repeated interruptions, and residents accusing officials of keeping key details from the public. For the 144-acre site on Textile … Continue reading “University of Michigan\u2019s $1.2 billion computing center sparks backlash: Los Alamos link fuels protests”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9350,"featured_media":377568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-377569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9350"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377569"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377570,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377569\/revisions\/377570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377569"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=377569"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=377569"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=377569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}