By RICK NEBEL
Los Alamos

This is a response to Dr. Prisca Tiasse’s recent op-ed on innovation. Although I’m not a policy person, I think what she said made a lot of sense. Low cost and overhead are important for making your company resilient. Startup companies usually don’t have a lot of resources.

Right now, there are 10 acres of undeveloped land at the old, cleaned up nuclear waste dump on DP Road. Utilities have just recently been installed, and 480 three phase power is available. My understanding is that the cleanup level isn’t high enough to build housing on it. Recreational facilities may also be problematic for the same reason. Parents aren’t likely to want to send their kids out to play in an old nuclear waste dump. An innovation hub would be a welcome addition. It is cleaned up enough for commercial applications. It isn’t downtown, so I suspect that retail is not an attractive alternative.

You don’t have to have fancy facilities to do world class science and innovation. I have attached a picture of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in 1944. The major question is whether or not there are enough people in Los Alamos who would take advantage of such a facility to start a company.

Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in 1944. Courtesy photo