UT Says No Nukes

Feisty UT activists (yes, they still exist) learned Thursday they can cross one item off their to-do list this semester: UT System Chancellor Mark Yudof announced that he would recommend the Board of Regents not bid on a federal contract to run the Los Alamos National (Nuclear) Laboratory in New Mexico. UT had been investigating the idea for more than a year; student and peace activists had been protesting it for just as long.

"We've been doing some very thorough due diligence, and it came down to the risks outweighing what we felt we had to gain from participating in a potential bid," said UT system spokeswoman Randa Safady. The trouble-prone lab was a particularly risky operation, as far as nuclear labs with multibillion-dollar budgets go, because of a series of well-publicized security and safety lapses. In addition, Safady added that UT had been unable to find a partner institution willing to take on half the load. (Texas A&M and Lockheed Martin had both looked into, and rejected, the idea of participating.)

Student group UT Watch, which has consistently opposed the potential bid, claimed victory, even suggesting that the announcement was timed to avoid UT being "embarrassed" by a forum and press hoo-ha that the schools' student government had planned for Jan. 26. (Safady simply said that UT had promised to look into all sides of the issue, and had delivered on that promise; plus, the Board of Regents are next scheduled to meet in early February.) Now, UT Watch members say they can put the nukes behind them and focus on some actual educational issues during the session, such as higher education appropriations and the Top 10 Percent law.

"This is going to be a real boost for us, going into the session with this huge, huge victory behind us," said member Austin Van Zant.