Albuquerque Journal June 8, 2002
Nuke Plan Creates Confusion
By John Fleck Journal Staff Writer
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will keep its nuclear weapons work under a Bush administration proposal to turn it into the nation's leading homeland security research lab, a White House spokesman said Friday.
But a lack of detail about the proposal drew criticism, and left unanswered questions about its effects on New Mexico's nuclear labs.
The proposal, unveiled Thursday, would take Livermore out of DOE and put it in the proposed new Homeland Security Department. That created confusion within the U.S. nuclear weapons program, where Livermore is one of three labs responsible for U.S. nuclear weapons design and maintenance. Observers said such a move could have major effects on Sandia and Los Alamos national labs in New Mexico, the nation's other two nuclear weapons research centers.
But a lack of information left officials scratching their heads.
"We're not sure what it means," said Linda Seaver, spokeswoman for Lawrence Livermore.
A statement issued by Livermore on Thursday suggested that lab officials first found out about the proposal from news media accounts.
"There's not a lot of information out there," said Jude McCartin, spokeswoman for Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. "They don't seem to know what they did when they cordoned off Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Sen. Bingaman does have concerns about that."
"I think that a good time will be had by all over the next month or so trying to figure out what the president meant," said John Pike, a national security analyst at GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Under the plan, the new Homeland Security Department would take over Livermore and would act as a landlord for Department of Energy-funded researchers who would continue to do nuclear weapons work, said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the Office of Homeland Security.
The administration wants to take advantage of research done in a number of different areas at Livermore that could help protect the nation against terrorism, Johndroe said.
The details of how many people would be involved at Livermore are undetermined, he said.
The lab currently employs 7,500 people, the majority of them working on projects related to nuclear weapons.
The DOE would continue to use a portion of Livermore's California campus to do its nuclear weapons work, Johndroe said, because exactly what and how the relationship would be handled has not been determined.
"Significant details of what is to be transferred ... remain to be determined," Energy Department Undersecretary John Gordon said in an e-mail to lab employees Friday.
"We're going to have to work through those details," said Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, a leading advocate for creation of the new department and who is also active in Energy Department issues.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., issued a statement saying there should be spinoff benefits for New Mexico's labs.
"I am assured that there will be a great deal of new work, and an upgrading of facilities for our labs," the Domenici statement said.
Thornberry said Livermore's nuclear weapons work would probably continue in much the same way as it is now.
"I don't see this playing out in a way that would reduce Lawrence Livermore's nuclear weapons mission," he said in a telephone interview.
The decision to move Livermore to the Homeland Security Department differs from proposals currently making their way through Congress.
Those bills would also create a Homeland Security Department but would not assign its research and development responsibilities to a specific lab, said Thornberry, one of the leaders of the congressional effort.
Instead, the bills would create an interagency technology clearinghouse, with all the research left in other federal agencies.
Thornberry said he supports Bush's proposal to give the homeland defense research job to a single lab.
"I think his is better," Thornberry said.
Copyright 2002 Albuquerque Journal
