NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Community members in Newport News have questions about a new building under construction at Jefferson Lab — and a town hall meeting is planned to address them.
Amanda Doughty has been vocal in her opposition to large-scale data centers coming to the area. She has also been working to clear up rumors about what is being built at Jefferson Lab.
"So there's been some misconceptions over — well in the community at what's going on over at Jefferson Lab," Doughty said.
WATCH: Virginia leaders gather for Jefferson Lab Data Center groundbreaking
Last month, city, state, and federal leaders broke ground on the project. The building will house the lab's High Performance Data Facility, but on social media, people have been posting concerns that a large data center is now being built.
"People think, you know, it's a data center, and I see where they do think that, because the sign literally says data center on it. And, there might not be enough information about what that building actually does," Doughty said.
Local Congressman Rob Wittman was asked about the concerns at the ceremony last month.
"The description of this as a data center is somewhat, I wouldn't say misleading, but it's somewhat inaccurate. It's more about a data research center and what we do to make sure we can use data in a high performance and very fast method," Wittman said.
In a statement to News 3, a spokesperson for Jefferson Lab clarified it is not a traditional commercial data center, adding: "The Jefferson Lab Data Center (JLDC) and the High Performance Data Facility (HPDF) represent a first-of-its-kind national scientific infrastructure investment that will connect researchers, data, advanced computing and artificial intelligence across the Department of Energy's research enterprise."
WATCH: No proposal for Newport News data center
Doughty still has questions of her own, but has met with people involved in the project.
"There's still some things that I have questions about that I'm hoping will be addressed at the town hall meeting ... so I have some more questions but I do feel a bit better," Doughty said.
A town hall meeting will be held to help answer the community's questions.
"The reason why we're holding this town hall is to educate the community and hopefully alleviate some of those concerns which I completely understand," Doughty said.
The town hall will be held July 28 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Denbigh Community Center.
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