Research, Not Bombs

Charges that Brookhaven National Laboratory has been involved in weapons development surfaced at the forum sponsored by the World Affairs Council on Nov. 9 at Southampton College.

M. Sue Davis, the associate director for reactor safety and security at the lab, said that "bomb production has never been part of our mission, only research."

Two weeks later at Guild Hall, however, William J. Weida, an economics professor from Colorado State University, read excerpts from the Department of Energy's $415-million budget for the lab to the audience.

Dr. Weida said it showed $250 million related to nuclear research, $12 million allocated to weapons development, and $2 million for weapons testing. Brookhaven has obvious links to the national laboratories at Los Alamos and Sandia in New Mexico, which are almost entirely devoted to weapons development, he said.

Those scientists representing Brookhaven at Guild Hall suggested that Dr. Weida's information was inaccurate, but he insisted that the Department of Energy had allocated those funds for the purposes cited and he retorted that lab officials were guilty of misappropriation if the money was spent in other ways.

Having been pressed for details on defense research at the lab on Nov. 9, Dr. Davis said such information was secret for national security reasons.

"I could tell you but then I would have to kill you," she joked.