One of the things I missed while on vacation was an apparently interesting hearing before the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee on the future of the U.S. nuclear weapons program. The main news message out of the hearing was the strong support the three lab directors voiced for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (a program that, for my money, looks to be on the ropes and likely to go down - but that's the subject of another blog post).

But down in the text of Sandia honcho Tom Hunter's written testimony is a very interesting point about  the potential effects of the Complex Transformation proposal on the work force at Sandia.

Complex Transformation is the National Nuclear Security Administration's proposal to shrink the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, and it comes with a 20 to 30 percent work force reduction over a decade or so. Hunter makes an interesting plea: that Sandia be given some credit here for the reduction already made in nuclear weapons employment:

We have reduced our direct nuclear weapon workforce by 18 percent since 2004, largely through retirements and by redirecting engineers, scientists, and technicians to other national security programs. It is important to recognize and account for the fact that those organizations that have already made progress toward achieving their goals should not be subject to even further reductions.

Sandia's overall work force has not shrunk. They've been quite successful about diversifying. But this is definitely an issue that bears further inquiry. Hunter's traveling, so it'll be a while before I have a chance to connect with him and talk about the details, so don't expect a full story for a while. But I think the issue he's raising bears further examination. 

In the meantime, check out his full testimony. (I can't figure out how to link directly to the testimony because of weird javascript-fu on the committee web site. Go here and scroll down the list until you find it.)