Some news from around the web, about nuke spending and water:

• If you're interested in water, as I am, there's no better one-stop news shop than Emily Green's The week that was.
• We here at the Albuquerque Journal place a natural emphasis in our coverage of the nuclear weapons budget on the warheads and bombs themselves. That's to be expected. That's what we do in New Mexico, at our weapons labs. But Nukes of Hazard points out that one also needs delivery vehicles to get the tools of amageddon from bunker to target.
• Albuquerque's Greg Mello is critical of what he sees as a disconnect between the 2011 budget request and Barack Obama's Prague speech on pursuing a world without nuclear weapons.
• If you'll forgive a plug for a personal passion, the powers that be are in the planning phase of some improvements to Albuquerque's North Diversion Channel bike trail (the one that goes from my house to my work!). The project will build underpasses beneath a number of major cross streets, greatly improving safety for one of the main bicycle commuting and recreation routes in town. Public meeting Tuesday, 2/9, 6 p.m. to discussion details. Bike ABQ has more.

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There is a whole lot of "TBD" in the Obama administration's 2011 budget request for plutonium infrastructure at Los Alamos National Laboratory. That's fed-speak for "to be determined" - costs the government knows are out there in the murky fog of future budgets, but can't quite make out in detail.

Today's story on the seismic upgrades at Los Alamos is one such example:

Los Alamos National Laboratory is taking steps to reduce the risk of a potentially catastrophic radiation release should a major earthquake occur, according to a Feb. 2 letter from Energy Secretary Steven Chu to federal safety auditors.

The lab has already reduced the amount of plutonium allowed at Technical Area 55, one of two lab complexes devoted to work with plutonium, a dangerously radioactive metal used in nuclear weapons.

Other upgrades of safety systems in the concrete blockhouse are being launched, according to Chu's letter.

The National Nuclear Security Administration has agreed to spend $6.7 million this year to start on the upgrades, but federal budget documents suggest that the price tag for fixing the problem could be substantially larger.

Pair that with last week's story on the uncertain costs of a replacement for yet another plutonium facility, the lab's Chemistry and Metallurgy Research building (CMR), and we're talking some big numbers here:

The Obama administration Monday (Feb. 1) proposed major increases in the U.S. nuclear weapons budget, including money for a new plutonium research complex at Los Alamos National Laboratory that could cost more than $4 billion.

(picture of TA55 entrance gate courtesy LANL)

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