With an important vote on U.S. nuclear weapons funding looming, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., is asking President Bush to pressure Congress to fund a new generation of nuclear warheads.



The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up a funding measure Wednesday that would leave out funding for the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead and make cuts to other weapons programs.



Nuclear Watch New Mexico, a Santa Fe-based watchdog group, on Tuesday posted this letter, in which Domenici, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., ask Bush to "lock in" a plan to modernize the nuclear weapons complex. That includes modernizing Los Alamos National Laboratory’s plutonium facility so that it can ramp up production of plutonium bomb cores, or pits. The senators are also asking Bush to veto Congress’ spending plan, if it doesn’t fund RRW. The next phase of studies will cost at least $56 million, said the senators, who are asking the president to request from Congress  emergency supplemental funding for nuclear weapons programs.



The country’s nuclear deterrent "prevents a cascade of proliferation from other nuclear-capable states,"  yet U.S. nuclear programs and facilities have been neglected, the senators wrote:

 

By every measure, we have allowed our national labs, nuclear infrastructure and production complex, scientific base, military training and weapons delivery systems to deteriorate.

 

 Last week, a House subcommittee cut funding for the country’s nuclear weapons program, saying it lacks focus and a long-term plan that would justify spending increases.

 

That same subcommittee, meanwhile, is calling for a halt to plutonium pit production in a report to be made public tomorrow, the Albuquerque Journal’s John Fleck is reporting on his blog:

 

A source told me a preliminary analysis by NNSA has concluded that the plan would require cutting 1,700 to 1,800 jobs throughout the nuclear weapons complex. No clear picture yet of how many of those would be in New Mexico.

 

In a news release Tuesday, Nuclear Watch executive director Jay Coghlan said it’s time for a new direction at LANL.

 

 "Instead of leftover Cold War thinking we need mission diversification at LANL to address new national security concerns and better ensure future jobs," Coghlan said.