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| | | published Tuesday, June 21, 2011 | 713 Views :: 0 Comments | |  |
By John Fleck
Journal Staff Writer on Tue, Jun 21, 2011
Nuclear weapons program managers need to resolve questions about
earthquake safety before they begin construction of a new plutonium
laboratory at Los Alamos, a key House committee decided last week.
In approving a 3 percent spending increase for the U.S. nuclear weapons
program, the House Appropriations Committee put a hold on funding that
would have been used to start early construction activities on the
Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement building.
The committee’s allocation of $7.1 billion for the National Nuclear
Security Administration’s nuclear weapons work is a $200 million
increase over this year’s levels, but falls well short of the 11 percent
increase the Obama administration had requested, leading some to call
the spending plan a budget cut.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates reportedly told members of Congress at a
defense hearing last week that he was “very concerned” by the reductions
from the administration’s requested nuclear weapons spending level.
“Only in Washington could an increase of this magnitude be labeled a
cut,” retorted Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., the chairman of the
House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, when he introduced
his bill at a June 16 hearing.
Meanwhile across the Capitol building, the Senate Armed Services
Committee on Friday approved legislation supporting the administration’s
requested 11 percent increase, setting up what has become an annual tug
of war between the House and Senate over how much to spend on the
program that funds work at Los Alamos and Sandia labs in New Mexico.
The Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement building, where lab
researchers would work with plutonium used in the design and manufacture
of nuclear weapons, was one of the centerpieces of efforts by
Frelinghuysen and his colleagues to hold the line on spending increases.
Design work on the building should continue, but “major seismic issues”
with the building’s design need to be worked out before construction can
get under way, the committee’s report concludes. Questions about
earthquake safety have driven up the cost of the building and delayed
design and construction efforts.
The administration requested $300 million for Fiscal Year 2012, but the committee only allocated $200 million.
While holding the line on money for construction of the plutonium
building at Los Alamos, the committee provided the administration the
full $160 million requested for a similar project to be built at the
NNSA’s Y-12 site in Tennessee. The Tennessee and New Mexico projects,
both with future price tags in the billions, are frequently seen as
competitors for scarce dollars in the agency’s budget.
The House and Senate actions represent two of the four committees that
must act to shape the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget.
Eventually, the House and Senate spending plans must be reconciled in a
process not likely until late summer or fall at the earliest. In most
recent years, the two sides failed to come to agreement on a spending
plan until after the Oct. 1 start of the federal fiscal year.
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