Board members in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan, have pledged to oppose a proposed nuclear AI data centre to their very last breath. The University of Michigan and Los Alamos National Laboratory intend to construct the facility in the community. If approved, the site will run simulations to assist the United States in building nuclear weapons.
Residents of Ypsilanti Township largely rejected the project and voiced their opposition during a public board meeting on 16 June. In a display of support often rare from local leaders in communities hosting data centres, the Ypsilanti Township board vowed to oppose the University of Michigan and Los Alamos National Laboratory with everything they had.
Throughout most of the three-hour meeting, a photograph from a data centre groundbreaking in nearby Saline Township was projected onto a wall behind the board. The image showed a smiling Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer standing in line with Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk. It was taken at the June 1 groundbreaking of an Oracle and OpenAI data centre in Saline Township, one of several Stargate projects. Saline Township is a community of only 2,300 people and the fight against the data centre was so contentious that the Township treasurer resigned in tears during a public meeting in May.
During the groundbreaking, a videographer captured Whitmer talking with Magouyrk. In the video Whitmer appeared to tell the billionaire, “We’re used to people saying no, and doing it anyway.” Whitmer’s office has officially denied she said that, but many of the residents of Michigan—including the people of Ypsilanti Township—believe she did.
Cilla Cresswell shot the video of Whitmer and was present at the Ypsilanti Township board meeting on Tuesday. “On June 1 I was standing just to the left, right there,” Creswell said, referring to the photo that loomed behind the board during the meeting. “I was there. I recorded that clip [… ] I was right there. And they want to say it’s fake, but I just want to let you guys know it’s real. You can play it on my camera.”
Members of the board and the community referenced the photograph often during the meeting. “You have people in that photograph worth billions of dollars. Not just millions, we’re talking trillions. Soon to be trillionaires. Yet this state, in its zeal to become the data capital of the country, has extended unprecedented tax credits to the richest corporations in the world,” Douglas Winters, a lawyer representing Ypsilanti Township, said in the meeting.
“Having to stare at this picture during this meeting has my blood boiling,” said Ypsi resident Laura Witowski. “I did not realize how emotional I would be. The waste of space. The complete lack of regard for humans and animals and for what?”
During the hours of community comments, residents stepped forward to voice complaints that have now become common about data centres in America. The people of Ypsilanti Township worried about the rising cost of electricity, how much water the building will use, and how noisy the data centre would be once finished.
They also called on the Township board to do everything in their power to stop it from even being built. “Put yourselves on the line. Those people will listen to you better than they will listen to us. Please put yourselves, your jobs, and your comfort on the line to stop this for us,” Ypsi resident Jane Wolf said. “Get creative. Tear up the road. Block the road. Break the law. Do whatever you need to do for us. You will be remembered better in history for the job that you did if you can get creative and really put yourselves out there.”
Jill Warren, the wife of a Methodist pastor, suggested residents brush up on the OSS’ Simple Sabotage Field Manual. “Simply slow things down bureaucratically,” she said. “Make sure we block where we can. Use very slow agendas and response times and do, within your power, the work that you are entitled to do. For those who aren’t familiar with it, please look up the Simple Sabotage Field Manual and use it in your own lives of action as well […] they may not care about us, but we care about us and we’re here and we’ll continue to be here and support the work that you’re doing on our behalf.”
Alyssa, an Ypsilanti resident, cited long passages from John Hershey’s Hiroshima—a 1946 book that focused on the victims of the first atomic bombing. “We don’t need simulations to know what a nuclear strike looks like,” she said. “We have pictures, videos, and audio of what happens. We know what it does to bodies. We know what it does to children and what it does to life.”
Board supervisor Brend Stumbo vowed to fight. “This is going to harm our community in our future. We will fight to our very last breath, but we need help. And we need it from the people who have the power to stop things,” she said.
Stumbo explained that, early on, she and other members of the board were ignorant about data centres and that she was grateful to the Township’s residents for informing her. “Now we know and we’re thankful for the residents and non-residents that came to our meetings early and told us, ‘don’t trust UofM,'” she said. “We do not love nor do we appreciate what the board or regents is doing to our community. It needs to stop. And everyone that showed up here today, we greatly appreciate it and we will keep going, like everyone has said, by doing it together […] I will stand with you. I will fight with you. And I know this entire board and our Township attorney will as well. So let’s keep doing it together.”
The Township has, so far, made good on its word and it’s been creative in its opposition. In April, the board voted to institute a 365 day moratorium on supplying water to data centres so it could conduct a scientific study into how hyper scale data centres might affect the community water supply. In response, UofM threatened to sue and claimed that withholding water from an AI data centre meant to power nuclear weapons research was unlawful discrimination.
What it means
Local officials are actively blocking a facility intended to simulate nuclear weapon development. The township has halted water supply to the project to force a study on community impact. This creates a legal standoff where the university claims the water restriction is unlawful discrimination against a project involving nuclear research.
