Ypsilanti Township in Michigan is attempting to cut off the flow of water to a planned data center that would power a new generation of nuclear weapons research. On Wednesday, the Township’s Board of Trustees voted to institute a 365 day moratorium on the delivery of water to hyperscale data centers so the township can study the impact of the building’s massive water needs.The proposed data center in the Ypsilanti Township’s Hydro Park has been a sore spot for the community since its proposal. The $1.2 billion 220,000 square foot facility would be used by Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL) some 1,500 miles away for nuclear weapons research. In February, UofM’s Steven Ceccio told the University of Michigan Record that the facility would consume 500,000 gallons of water per day and that the University planned to buy it from the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority. (YCUA)
The YCUA has spent the past month lobbying for a moratorium on providing water and sewer access to hyperscale data centers and “artificial intelligence computing facilities,” according to notes on a presentation stored on the organization’s website. The moratorium would include LANL’s data center.The YCUA cited an American Water Works Association white paper about data center water demands and concluded it needed more time to investigate the matter. “Hyper-scale data centers, as well as other mid-sized data centers, artificial intelligence computing facilities, and high-performance computational centers are ‘high-impact customers’ for water and sewer utilities,” YCUA said in its presentation.The moratorium places a 12-month stop on serving water to data centers while the YCUA conducts a long-term water supply analysis and looks into the environmental sustainability studies. “During the 12-month moratorium period, the Authority will refrain from executing any capacity reservation agreement.”This is a delay tactic on the part of a Township that does not want to see the data center constructed. Many in the community have strong feelings about the use of parkland for a facility that researchers nuclear weapons. Beyond the moral and ethical concerns, some are worried about becoming targets in a war. Last month, Township attorney Douglas Winters told the Board of Trustees that building hosting the data center would make Ypsilanti Township a “high value target.” He pointed to the recent bombing of Gulf Coast data centers by Iran as evidence.America is embarking on a new nuclear arms race and Ypsilanti Township is one small part of it. The Pentagon has called for US nuclear scientists to design new kinds of nuclear weapons and Trump’s 2027 budget proposal almost doubled the money set aside to create new cores for nukes. UofM has repeatedly said that the data center would not “manufacture” nuclear weapons.“Los Alamos is tasked with nuclear stewardship—not conducting live tests on weaponry, but instead using advanced computation to ensure the safety and reliability of our existing stockpile without the need for nuclear testing, especially as our stockpile ages. Computation provides an important tool for LANL to achieve this mission,” UofM’s Ceccio told the Record.But during a public open house about the data center, LANL deputy laboratory director Patrick Fitch confirmed it would be used for weapons research. “One of the two computers we’re planning in our 55 megawatts (section)—if this facility is built—will be for what’s called secret restricted data. So it’ll be for the nuclear weapons program. Not exclusively, but it’ll be able to do that work,” Fitch told the Michigan Daily.During the Wednesday meeting of the Ypsilanti Township Board, attorney Winters gave a clear eyed summary of the Township’s place in the new nuclear arms race. “This facility they’re proposing in partnership with the UofM is the digital brain for everything that’s going to take place in New Mexico. Make no mistake about it, you can rename, reframe, and repackage all you want. It is a high value target,” Winters said. Even with the proposed water moratorium, the University and LANL plan to break ground on the data center on Monday. The University of Michigan did not return 404 Media’s request for a comment.