Schools of Mass Destruction: American Universities in the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex

University of California

Nearly 50 U.S. universities are involved in the research and design of U.S. nuclear weapons, largely in secret and in contradiction of their mission statements. Students and faculty must demand their universities stop helping to build weapons of mass destruction.

The University of California has been involved in the management of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - two of the nation’s primary nuclear weapons labs - since their inception. Multiple UC campuses have research partnerships with facilities in the nuclear weapons complex.

The state of California supports a complete ban on nuclear weapons; it is time for its university system to do the same.

How you can take action

More details about the University of California’s involvement

Currently, at a system level, the University of California is a partner in Triad National Security, LLC, along with Texas A&M University and Battelle Memorial Institute. Triad won the contract to operate the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2018. The lab provides design and engineering for several nuclear warhead types, conducts simulated experiments to evaluate warheads, and has the capacity to produce plutonium pits, the core material for nuclear warheads. Department of Energy funding for the Lab in FY2019 was $2.48 billion, of which 76% comes from the NNSA’s Weapons Activities Appropriations.

The fixed fee awarded to Triad for executing the contract is about $20 million per year, with an additional $25-30 million available through award fees should it meet certain performance benchmarks. This is the money Triad receives above the costs of operating the facility. The University of California estimated that it would receive $8.9 million in net fee revenue from Triad for FY2019, which it plans to reinvest in lab oversight functions and funding for research partnerships between UC campuses and the labs.

In 2007, the management of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was awarded to a University of California-led LLC called Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC. The partners in this LLC are the University of California, Bechtel National, BWX Technologies, and AECOM.

Similar to the Los Alamos lab, the Lawrence Livermore lab provides design and engineering for several nuclear warhead types and conducts simulated experiments to evaluate warheads. Department of Energy funding for the Lab in FY2019 was $1.56 billion, of which 86% comes from the NNSA’s Weapons Activities Appropriations.

The management organization is scheduled to receive a fixed fee of nearly $13 million in FY2019, with performance incentive fees of up to $30 million also available. It is unclear exactly how the partners in the LLC divide the fees. The University of California estimated that it would receive $13.6 million in net fee revenue from this lab for FY2019, which it would reinvest in lab oversight functions and funding for research partnerships between UC campuses and the labs.

Several individual campuses in the University of California system are listed as partners on the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory website. When asked for more information, the responses from these campuses have shown varied levels of partnership, mostly at the level of research collaborations between faculty and the lab in different scientific areas.

Three campuses - UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UCLA - are partners in Sandia National Laboratories’ Campus Executive Program. This program aims to build deeper relational connections between the laboratory and different universities for the purpose of research collaboration and future workforce recruitment. In FY2018, Sandia invested $18.7 million in research across its Campus Executive and Academic Alliance universities. Sandia National Laboratories focuses on the non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons and on nuclear weapons systems integration, for example connecting warheads to their missile delivery systems. Sandia also performs simulated experiments to test the safety and reliability of nuclear weapons.

UC San Diego was awarded funding in 2018 for a Stewardship Science Academic Alliance Center of Excellence. The Center for Matter under Extreme Conditions will receive $10.5 million in research grants over five years. While the Stewardship Science Academic Alliance program funds basic, unclassified research, it seeks and funds proposals that have relevance to the stewardship of the nation’s nuclear stockpile.

For more information, including references, you can read the full report.

Texas A&M University

Nearly 50 U.S. universities are involved in the research and design of U.S. nuclear weapons, largely in secret and in contradiction of their mission statements. Students and faculty must demand their universities stop helping to build weapons of mass destruction.

From managing a nuclear weapons lab to partnering with production facilities, the Texas A&M System has connections to many different segments of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. The university has a publicly stated “commitment to the nuclear weapons industry.”

How you can take action

More details about Texas A&M University’s involvement

The Texas A&M University is a partner in Triad National Security, LLC, along with the University of California Regents and Battelle Memorial Institute. Triad won the contract to operate the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2018. The Lab provides design and engineering for several nuclear warhead types, conducts simulated experiments to evaluate warheads, and has the capacity to produce plutonium pits, the core material for nuclear warheads. Department of Energy funding for the lab in FY2019 was $2.48 billion, of which 76% comes from the NNSA’s Weapons Activities Appropriations.

The fixed fee awarded to Triad for executing the contract is about $20 million per year, with an additional $25-30 million available through award fees should it meet certain performance benchmarks. This is the money Triad receives above the costs of operating the facility - essentially its profit. Officials at Texas A&M reported that its fee information is considered proprietary.

Texas A&M University is also a subcontractor to Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, which manages the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. In 2007, at the beginning of this partnership, an announcement noted that the university’s proposed role would be “to operate an institute at LLNL dedicated to national security education and research.” When asked about its current role at the laboratory, Texas A&M officials said its system “provides graduate and executive level training to Lawrence Livermore staff related to the safeguarding of nuclear materials, the reduction of nuclear threats and non-proliferation.”

Similar to the Los Alamos lab, the Lawrence Livermore lab provides design and engineering for several nuclear warhead types and conducts simulated experiments to evaluate warheads. Department of Energy funding for the lab in FY2019 was $1.56 billion, of which 86% comes from the NNSA’s Weapons Activities Appropriations.

Texas A&M is a partner in Sandia National Laboratories’ Campus Executive Program. This program aims to build deeper relational connections between the laboratory and different universities for the purpose of research collaboration and future workforce recruitment. In FY2018, Sandia invested $18.7 million in research across its Campus Executive and Academic Alliance universities. In 2016, the Texas A&M University System joined Boeing, Battelle, the University of New Mexico and the University of Texas in an unsuccessful bid to manage Sandia. Sandia National Laboratories focuses on the non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons and on nuclear weapons systems integration, for example connecting warheads to their missile delivery systems. Sandia also performs simulated experiments to test the safety and reliability of nuclear weapons.

Texas A&M is listed as a “Key University Partner” by Consolidated National Security, LLC, the managing contractor for the Pantex Plant and the Y-12 National Security Complex, “demonstrating expertise in aligned research interests, strength in academic and research disciplines, successful working relationships with university faculty and administration, and extensive programmatic and research interactions supporting key CNS initiatives.” In 2018, the Texas A&M System announced an agreement with CNS that also includes leased space in the new building, which Texas A&M System leadership viewed “as a natural extension of the System’s commitment to the nuclear weapons industry.” The Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station has an ongoing umbrella agreement with CNS for “collaborative research and education support;” individual tasks are requested and funded under this agreement. The funding ceiling was initially $199,000 in 2017, but increased substantially to nearly $3 million by early 2019.

The Pantex Plant is responsible for the dismantling of retired warheads and the reassembly of warheads undergoing life extension projects and is the storage location for thousands of plutonium pits. The Y-12 Complex sources the enriched uranium necessary for nuclear weapons.

Texas A&M also receives funding under the Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program (PSAAP) II for its Center for Exascale Radiation Transport. PSAAP is an Advanced Simulation and Computing initiative funded by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) that has roots that date back to 1997. Since the NNSA can no longer actively test nuclear weapons, it funds universities to develop advanced simulation capabilities. PSAAP II, the recent iteration of this initiative, started in 2014 and provided $14.4 million annually for five years to six different centers. In 2019, a funding opportunity announcement was made for the next five years, with award announcements expected late in 2019 and estimated to total $20 million per year, subject to appropriation authority. The announcement emphasized that proposals should consider simulation capabilities within a discipline “of interest” to the NNSA’s mission.

Texas A&M was awarded funding in 2018 for two separate Stewardship Science Academic Alliance Centers of Excellence. The Center for Excellence in Nuclear Training and University-based Research will receive $10 million in research grants over five years. The Center for Research Excellence on Dynamically Deformed Solids will receive $12.5 million in research grants over five years. While the Stewardship Science Academic Alliance program funds basic, unclassified research, it seeks and funds proposals that have relevance to the stewardship of the nation’s nuclear stockpile.

For more information, including references, you can read the full report.

Johns Hopkins

Nearly 50 U.S. universities are involved in the research and design of U.S. nuclear weapons, largely in secret and in contradiction of their mission statements. Students and faculty must demand their universities stop helping to build weapons of mass destruction.

Johns Hopkins University receives more than twice as much funding from the Department of Defense than any other university due to the work of its Applied Physics Laboratory; in 2019 the funding ceiling for its ongoing contract was extended beyond $7 billion. This work includes research for the U.S. military’s nuclear weapons systems, despite the fact that the university’s mission statement includes the call “to bring the benefits of discovery to the world.”

How you can take action

More detail about Johns Hopkins University’ involvement

Johns Hopkins has a “university affiliated research center” for the Department of Defense that participates directly in nuclear weapons development called the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Started in 1942, the Applied Physics Laboratory takes up 453 acres in its off-campus location. Its stated goal is “to create defining innovations that ensure our nation’s preeminence in the 21st century.” This stands in contrast to the mission of the university overall: “To educate its students and cultivate their capacity for lifelong learning, to foster independent and original research, and to bring the benefits of discovery to the world.”

Due in large part to the laboratory, Johns Hopkins University received $828 million in research and development grants from DoD in FY2017, more than twice as much as any other American university. It has been the site of repeated protests in previous decades. For example, in 1995 a Catholic nun and peace activist served a 30-day jail sentence for refusing to stop passing out leaflets on the lab’s campus when asked to leave.

The Applied Physics Laboratory received a renewed 7-year contract in 2017 for up to $92 million “for continuing the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center’s (AFNWC) strategic partnership.” This is only one piece of the lab’s work; in 2019, the funding ceiling for its ongoing multi-year contract with the Department of Defense was extended beyond $7 billion.

Johns Hopkins’ classified research policy creates a distinction between the laboratory and the rest of campus. While classified research is generally not allowed, the policy explicitly exempts the Applied Physics Laboratory as the only “non-academic division.”

For more information, including references, you can read the full report.

University of New Mexico

Nearly 50 U.S. universities are involved in the research and design of U.S. nuclear weapons, largely in secret and in contradiction of their mission statements. Students and faculty must demand their universities stop helping to build weapons of mass destruction.

More than 3,800 New Mexicans have been poisoned by fallout from U.S. nuclear weapons tests and uranium mining. Despite this well-documented local harm and the devastating environmental and humanitarian effects of nuclear weapons around the world, the University of New Mexico has recently deepened its partnerships with nuclear weapons labs and other nuclear weapons production sites, even making an unsuccessful bid to manage one of these labs in 2016.

How you can take action

More details about the University of New Mexico’s involvement

The University of New Mexico is connected to Los Alamos National Laboratory through the New Mexico Consortium. The Consortium works to foster research collaborations and economic development opportunities in a variety of scientific areas. The Los Alamos National Laboratory provides design and engineering for several nuclear warhead types, conducts simulated experiments to evaluate warheads, and has the capacity to produce plutonium pits, the core material for nuclear warheads.

In addition, the managing contractor for Los Alamos, Triad, recently signed a five-year institutional agreement with the University of New Mexico that allows reciprocal access to the lab and university settings for researchers in both institutions. In response to questions about its connections to Los Alamos and Sandia, university administration noted that the high-level agreements make collaborations between faculty and lab staff easier to facilitate.

The University of New Mexico is one of Sandia National Laboratories’ five Academic Alliance partner universities. These partnerships help Sandia “identify promising candidates at top universities before graduation and promote joint technology development research between graduate students and SNL researchers, pursuing topics with national security applications.” All Academic Alliance schools are also designated as a Campus Executive university partner by Sandia. In FY2018, Sandia invested $18.7 million in research across its Campus Executive and Academic Alliance universities. In 2016, the University of New Mexico joined Boeing, Battelle, the University of Texas and Texas A&M University in an unsuccessful bid to manage Sandia. Sandia National Laboratories focuses on the non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons and on nuclear weapons systems integration, for example connecting warheads to their missile delivery systems. Sandia also performs simulated experiments to test the safety and reliability of nuclear weapons.

The University of New Mexico entered into a Master Collaboration Agreement with the operator of the Kansas City National Security Campus on June 6, 2016. The operator Honeywell has initiated at least ten “Master Collaboration Agreements” with universities since 2015 “to facilitate closer collaboration on research and development of new technology to meet national security needs.” The work at the Kansas City National Security Campus centers on the manufacturing of non-nuclear components necessary for nuclear weapons.

For more information, including references, you can read the full report