Press alert 23 February 2020
Permalink * Prior press releases
If approved, LANL to be $3.5+ billion (B) lab/production facility
Thousands to be hired for warhead production, nuke missions; where would they work and live?
NM warhead spending would jump 25%, reaching nearly $6 B; DOE spending in NM would rise 15% to $7.5 B
Proposed NM warhead funding increase a major part of unprecedented Trump warhead spending surge
Related: as of 2/13/20 NNSA had not submitted to Congress any plan for LANL warhead core ("pit") production; NNSA paid LANL for plan, now says can't find it
Contact: Greg Mello, 505-265-1200 or 505-577-8563 cell
Albuquerque and Santa Fe -- Shocking details are emerging as Department of Energy (DOE) FY2021 budget request details are posted, now including laboratory and state tables.
From the former we see that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), DOE's nuclear warhead, naval reactor, and defense nonproliferation agency, seeks an 49% increase in nuclear weapons activities at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and a 33% increase in overall DOE spending at LANL for FY2021.
DOE and NNSA are requesting $3.428 billion (B) for LANL. If approved in full, LANL's overall budget for FY2021 would be significantly greater than $3.5 billion (B), likely in the $3.8-$3.9 B range given that LANL's non-DOE funding, called "Strategic Partnership Projects" (SPP, formerly "Work For Others") was $427 million (M) in FY2019 (slide 4) and has been growing.
DOE proposes to cut Environmental Management (EM) spending at LANL by $100 M (45%), from $220 M to $120 M. Should this (strongly-contested) cut not occur, and all of LANL's other proposed funding be approved by Congress, LANL could reach the $4 B mark.
Requested funding for plutonium programs at LANL, including construction, totals at least $1.16 B for FY21 (in the laboratory table, pp. 42-43, add these lines: "Plutonium modernization," construction projects 15-D-302, 07-D-220-04, 04-D-125; and "Material Disposition"). (This $1.16 B figure does not include Pu-238 heat source operations, which is not broken out separately from other budget lines.)
In the proposed budget for LANL, some $619 M is for preparations (e.g. engineering design, long-lead procurement, training) for plutonium pit production at the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina, more in fact than the $442 M requested for SRS for the same project. Some fraction of this $619 M at LANL is probably directed toward design work conducted by LANL subcontractors located in South Carolina as well as in New Mexico.
Nuclear weapons activities would also increase at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), the DOE-funded budget of which would rise by 11% if this request were fully funded.
Statewide, warhead spending would jump 25% under the Trump plan, reaching nearly $6 B. Overall, DOE spending in New Mexico would rise 15% to $7.5 B.
The proposed spending increases at LANL and SNL are part of an unprecedented nuclear warhead spending surge that was proposed by NNSA and approved by President Trump just before Christmas. (See for example: Albuquerque Journal: President’s budget calls for more spending on nuclear production; Santa Fe New Mexican: Trump proposes 25 percent bump in nuke spending). In the following chart the proposed warhead spending surge is shown in comparison to past spending and this Administration's previously-estimated spending for FY21-24.
The red dot is NNSA's proposed FY2021 Weapons Activities budget, with its pro-rata share of administrative costs included to make it historically comparable. The red line below it is what NNSA projected last year.
(bigger)
Last year the administration estimated it would need $977 M for pit production (p. 83, "Plutonium Sustainment"). The administration has since increased proposed FY21 spending -- at LANL, SRS, and other NNSA sites -- by hundreds of millions of dollars. (Chart of last year's proposed increase, not updated yet.)
The fascinating story of how this huge proposed nuclear weapons increase was put together has been partially told elsewhere. For expediency's sake the successively-more-complete press accounts, and further details provided to us in meetings in Washington, must be omitted tonight.
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In a related matter, we can confirm that as of February 13, 2020 NNSA had not submitted to congressional defense committees any plan for LANL "pit" production, according to multiple professional staff. Such plans were required by law in mid-2019. Congress authorized and funded pit production at LANL without the required plans. NNSA has told congressional staff that while they do not have the plan, "they trust the LANL contractor."
On p. 3 of the LANL contractor's (Triad's) Performance Evaluation Summary for FY2019, we see that "Triad delivered a pit production plan [to NNSA] after receiving contractual relief reducing the requirement." Triad got paid for this, receiving a "Very Good" rating and 80% of the at-risk fee (profit) for contract Goal 6 ("Leadership") that included this task.
On February 7, the Los Alamos Study Group requested a copy of this "pit production plan" under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
On February 19, NNSA sent its reply, saying the agency was on a "search" for the plan, but "we estimate that we will not be able to respond to your request in 20 working days. We need more time..."
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Study Group director Greg Mello:
"The transformation of LANL into a 'production agency,' as it is now called in NNSA, heading toward what NNSA nuclear weapon chief Charles Verdon called '24/7 operations,' is not proceeding in any kind of 'normal' government fashion. There is little or no oversight, not even by NNSA.
"It is a crash program proceeding in an entirely unaccountable manner, more characteristic of war than of peacetime governance.
"LANL is hiring roughly 1,000 new employees per year and expects to continue doing so for several more years. LANL is also planning some $13 billion in capital projects over the coming decade. Dozens of new buildings are planned.
"The lab has outgrown the buildable areas on its site, its nearby housing market, the regional road capacity, its electrical supply, its nuclear waste handling and shipping capacity, and the nearby labor force. The entire region has outgrown its water supply. Apparently, LANL must expand off-site to succeed as a new 'Rocky Flats South.
"Pits are now 'needed' not only for the Air Force's new W87-1 warhead, which would help enable a new generation of land-based missiles, but also for the 'W93' Navy warhead, funding for which is proposed in the coming year's budget. Since last year, NNSA has brought first-year funding of the W93 forward to FY21 from FY23. We believe this has been done in part to respond to concerns expressed by Senator Heinrich and others that LANL would otherwise have no warhead design projects to look forward to. First production of this warhead is scheduled for 2036, so if funded, W93 design and development would be a 15-year effort.
"LANL is unlikely to expand significantly in the Espanola Valley, given that region's poverty and drug problems. At the August 8, 2019 LANL subcontractor forum, neither Espanola nor northern New Mexico were mentioned.
"Probably LANL's greatest challenge -- apart from its chronic mismanagement -- is hiring, retaining, and training the 'nuclear weapons workforce of the future.' LANL is therefore looking to expand into Santa Fe, specifically at the City's Midtown Campus.
"Santa Fe, the City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis, will have to choose between the universal ideals embodied in its name, and a nightmare."
***ENDS***
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