LANL's Proposed Lab On Hold
Sunday, May 27, 2007By John Fleck
Journal Staff Writer
A proposed billion-dollar Los Alamos plutonium lab appears to be in trouble as a result of rising cost estimates and congressional skepticism.
The federal government hoped to begin construction next year, but Bush administration officials are now rethinking the project.
One reason: "increasing cost," National Nuclear Security Administration chief Thomas D'Agostino told members of Congress in a recent hearing. In the last year, preliminary cost estimates have jumped from $837 million to as much as $1.5 billion.
There is also skepticism about how the project fits into the National Nuclear Security Administration's longer range plans for maintaining the U.S. nuclear stockpile— plans that could render the project obsolete a decade after it is completed.
With those concerns in mind, D'Agostino told members of Congress in hearings this spring that he is putting the brakes on the Los Alamos project while his agency reviews its long range options.
For D'Agostino and the U.S. nuclear weapons establishment, decisions about whether to proceed with the nuclear lab are tied up in a complex debate now under way in Washington about what the future U.S. nuclear arsenal will look like, and how to build and manage it.
The Bush administration is pushing for development of a new Reliable Replacement Warhead, and a national nuclear production complex to produce it. The complex would include a "consolidated plutonium center"— a single factory and lab site that would take over much of the plutonium work now done at Los Alamos.
The big new Los Alamos plutonium lab was to be built, beginning next year, a bridge to handle the workload until the consolidated plutonium center is built.
In a report last year, Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, called building the Los Alamos lab only to replace it within a decade "irrational."
The National Nuclear Security Administration has gotten the message that Congress might be unwilling to fund both the lab and the factory-lab complex soon after, deputy NNSA chief Marty Schoenbauer said in an interview.
"That's being rethought," Schoenbauer said.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said he will continue to push for the project, calling it "absolutely necessary."
"It is needed to support the ongoing plutonium mission," Domenici said in a written statement Friday.
Greg Mello, a leading arms control activist with the Los Alamos Study Group, disagreed, questioning the need for a large new plutonium complex given questionable need for new plutonium weapons components.
For Los Alamos, D'Agostino's decision to apply the brakes is the latest twist in a saga going back two decades, as lab officials try to replace what they say is one of their most important but oldest nuclear labs.
At 550,000 square feet— more than twice the size of a super Wal-Mart— Los Alamos National Laboratory's Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Building is the largest building at the nuclear weapons lab. It contains laboratories where scientists analyze plutonium and other similar radioactive materials, primarily those used in the U.S. nuclear weapons program.
Completed in 1952, it has been near the end of its useful life for a quarter of a century. The first call for replacement came in 1982, according to Los Alamos lab associate director Terry Wallace.
In the late 1980s, the federal government planned a replacement lab, but as the Cold War ended the project died in the face of uncertainty over the future of the U.S. nuclear weapons program.
In the mid-1990s, the federal government launched a $175 million upgrade to the aging building. But after spending more than $100 million of that money, nuclear weapons program managers changed course again, deciding to scrap the upgrade and build an entirely new building.
The new building goes by the cumbersome name of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Building Replacement, but everyone involved in the project simply calls it "CMRR."
Part of the replacement project— an office building and a smaller lab— is already under construction. It is the second phase of the project, the CMRR Nuclear Facility, that D'Agostino has put on hold.
Over and over, Los Alamos officials have seen the expense of replacing or upgrading the old CMR building lead to repeated delays in dealing with the issue.
The excavation looks good though.
ReplyDeleteSounds logical to me. No RRW, no need for a pit facility or anything else. So how is this going to affect the number of people they need at LANL or as far as that is concerned since NIF is wining down and there are no other long term projects in site, how will the man power there be affected. Can you say Work Force Development Program with a high level of activity?
ReplyDeleteI guess the pit facility will be like that accelerator in Texas. The ground looks good. Put that project on hold until further notice.
I wonder where they are going to put all of that Pu from LLNL now?
The "Total" Dismantling of LANL is clear, with this announcment, it is crystal clear, LANL is not a player in the new and improved Weapons Complex....not even in the short term, (CMR) was going to be the short term Pit Facil;ity, but, again ...Cost Overruns, delayed schedules, etc...etc...Congress is fed up with LANL's inability to produce anything except very high Overheat costs...It's time to shut er down for all of our benefits, this money can be useful eleswhere...
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Mikey's statement will hold true for the next few months, maybe by then he will have made new Plans?
ReplyDelete3:59 pm
ReplyDeleteWho is it you thought was going to build RRW pits for LLNL? Remember. LLNL is de-inventoring plutonium. Yep - LANL/TA-55. Losing CMRR means that's the only Pu work LANL will do.
Well so much for the "Pit"s at LANL....So much for RRW....Now what are you gonna do Mikey?
ReplyDeletePresumably, the Director will continue to run LANL. What did you think he would do?
ReplyDeletePresumably, the Director will continue to run LANL [into the ground]. What did you think he would do?
ReplyDeleteFTFY
Continue to run what lab, not much left to run...Presumbly....
ReplyDeleteDisagree. The budget is not going to zero.
ReplyDeleteDuh ..you think? How about a good cut in half, within the next year? maybe Mikey could handle running a tiny lab with no future...
ReplyDeleteSkeptical that the budget is getting cut in half, but I don't know. Even if it does, I suspect he'll still be here after I'm gone. I imagine he'll collect the same pay.
ReplyDeleteThere are a bunch of "key personnel" who under the LANS contract agreed to serve for two years; the Director and the PADs and ADs. Rumors abound that not a few will call it quits after that committment. I count four NW program people (DIR, PADNW, ADWP, ADWE) who are ex-LLNL and who have "golden parachutes" from UC - e.g., accumulating UC service credit while employed by LANS at LANL. These folks all negotiated their employment contracts with LANS, not like the typical employee who got an offer of his/her existing job.
ReplyDeleteWant to bet what managers run the Lab after June 2008?
5/29/07 8:32 PM asked, "Want to bet what managers run the Lab after June 2008?"
ReplyDeleteGosh I certainly hope it is not the "blonde" chemist whose been in the role of AD for the past year.
Why wouldn't LANS just bring in others to do a tour of duty at upper mgt levels as the current managers cycle out?
ReplyDeleteI bet Mike Mallory will run the lab in a year...he was just promoted from AD-SMS to PAD Operations...Van Bynum's acting job...see ya later Van
ReplyDeleteBy the way I know Mallory a bit and he will be very hard on the operations directorates.
5/30/07 7:23 PM wrote "By the way I know Mallory a bit and he will be very hard on the operations directorates."
ReplyDeleteGood. Maybe he will make MC-FOD actually do something and fire Martin Aguilera - the guy who caused the janitor cuts and had TSMs taking out their trash. Also the guy who cut all the preventitive and corrective maintenance for all the buildings in MC-FOD. The only way anything gets fixed or addressed if the TSMs pay for it (ie you call air-conditioning for your building "programmatic") or if you talk to your DL or higher. Nice way to run the Lab. How can Mike cite all the improvements when none of the buildings get attention?
Is Aguilera also the guy who has caused every flipping men's room on every floor of the NSSB to be cleaned at exactly the same time every morning?? Hang 'im!!
ReplyDeleteWhy can't rest rooms be cleaned say, in the late afternoon when there isn't so much er.. demand?? Better yet, a staggered schedule? What, plan for the convenience of the residents? Not in our world. Janitors need to be gently eased from their perches on the couches in the NSSB lobby every morning, where they greet Mikey as he arrives with the same suspicious, "dare me to move" stares as everyone else.
Careful...careful...
ReplyDeleteAguilera has ways of finding out about complainers and making bad things stick on them.
8:37: No, if the restrooms are getting cleaned every day, you can rest assured MarTEEN is not involved.
ReplyDelete11:05, what's up with the sinister warnings?
"11:05, what's up with the sinister warnings?"
ReplyDeleteIt happened to me.