Senate Panel Moves to Maintain Funding for Los Alamos Plutonium Lab

Senate Panel Moves to Maintain Funding for Los Alamos Plutonium Lab

The Senate Armed Services Committee last week moved to allow $150 million in fiscal 2013 funds for a new plutonium facility planned at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, countering an Obama administration plan to suspend spending for the project, the Albuquerque Journal reported (see GSN, May 25).

The panel's defense authorization bill would mandate completion of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement project by 2024, though U.S. government personnel have contended reaching the milestone before 2028 would be unnecessary. The legislation would limit project spending at $3.7 billion.
Last month, Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives backed plans to suspend spending on the project, which would supplant a decades-old facility that provides analytical chemistry and other research services for production of plutonium nuclear-weapon cores at Los Alamos (see GSN, April 27). The replacement plant is projected to cost up to $6 billion, according to a previous report (see GSN, Feb. 21). The Obama administration is seeking to delay the facility by five years.
The Senate panel's move on Thursday was intended to "second guess the combined wisdom of several agencies" on the plan, said Greg Mello, who heads the watchdog Los Alamos Study Group.