http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/11/02/MNG7S2OIAR1.DTLStrange bedfellows in lab name saga
Peace activists, hawks want Livermore site to boast Teller moniker
moniker
Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer
Sunday, November 2, 2003
In death as he did in life, hydrogen bomb pioneer Edward Teller is stirring up
controversy.
During his half-century career as a nuclear weapons wizard, many Americans reviled
Teller as a monster, the real-life version of the sinister scientist played by Peter
Sellers in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film "Dr. Strangelove." Many others revered Teller as
a hero whose military contributions helped America win the Cold War.
Now, champions of both views are backing a scheme to rename the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory after Teller -- who died Sept. 9 at age 95 --
albeit for totally opposing reasons.
The renaming saga began with Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine (San Diego County),
chairman of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, a fervent backer of the U.S.
military whose Web site features a flapping American flag and the words "God Bless
America!" Last month, while developing the 2004 defense authorization bill, Hunter
proposed renaming the Livermore nuclear weapons lab east of San Francisco after
Teller, a former director of the lab and one of Hunter's heroes.
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