Políticos react to coming LANL layoffs

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - When Los Alamos National Laboratory staff gathered Tuesday afternoon, few were surprised at the announcement of a plan for 400-800 voluntary layoffs.

A lab spokesman called it the worst-kept secret in Los Alamos given federal deficits and the Obama administration's proposed budget that further stalls a major LANL construction project.

The layoff plan still requires an OK from the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Energy agency overseeing the lab's contract manager, Los Alamos National Security LLC.

The outside watchdog organization Los Alamos Study Group called the pending cuts a good start and said they would reduce lab employment to about 2008 levels.

“Today’s planned workforce reduction, the result of Republican-led budget-cutting in Congress, is good news," study group director Greg Mello said on the LASG website . "The post-Cold-War nuclear weapons missions at LANL have grown much too much over the past 17 years.

"Not only have the missions grown, but so has the cost per scientist."

Former-Rep. Heather Wilson, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate nomination, characterized the layoff plan as a broken promise of the Obama administration.

Specifically she cited the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Facility, a proposed consolidation of plutonium research into a modern, earthquake-resistant building. However, costs have grown over the last eight years from an estimated $400 million to as much as $6 billion.

The Obama administration budget for the next fiscal year released last week calls for a five-year hold on the new center.

“A little over a year ago, President Obama made a commitment to modernize our nuclear weapons complex in order to maintain a safe, reliable nuclear deterrent at lower levels of forces'" Wilson said in a statement. "In his new budget, however, President Obama has broken that commitment.

"And as a result, an estimated 1,000 jobs will be killed for 10 years in Los Alamos."

County officials had been expecting the 1,000 temporary construction jobs to boost the local economy.

"It's disappointing because last year we were told that these missions were key to the defense of our country," Sharon Stover, chairwoman of the Los Alamos County Council, told the Associated Press. "I'm not sure what's changed in the last few months, but we have a delegation that is going to D.C. next month.

"We hope our congressional leaders can get us some answers and reverse the trend."

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., questioned how the layoffs will affect the lab's mission and the economy of northern New Mexico.

"Nationally, budgets are being cut to deal with the deficit, and I'm concerned that the NNSA's budget blueprint will impact the talent at LANL and the vital work being performed there," Udall said in a statement released late Tuesday. "LANL is critical to our national security and state's economy, and I will continue to push for adequate funding at both of New Mexico's national labs."

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who is retiring at the end of the year, said that federal belt-tightening was bound to affect New Mexico given the level of government spending in the state.