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Wednesday, February 03, 2010

White House Wants To Cut Funding for Accelerator

By John Fleck
Journal Staff Writer
       The Obama administration wants to eliminate funding for an aging Los Alamos National Laboratory particle accelerator, setting off round two of a fight with the project's supporters.
    Congress last year resisted a similar request to cut funding for an upgrade to the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. In its budget request filed with Congress on Monday, the administration reiterated its argument that the machine is unnecessary.
    Located on a narrow mesa west of Los Alamos National Laboratory's main research area, LANSCE contains a particle accelerator that began operation in 1972. Particle accelerators are the workhorses of physics, creating high-energy beams of subatomic particles that are used to address fundamental scientific questions.
    Since the accelerator began being kicked around as a budget football last year, lab officials have declined comment, but in the past they have argued that without a potentially expensive upgrade, the machine will soon have to be shut down.
    In its 2011 budget request, the Obama administration recommended funding current operations but spending no money on the upgrade.
    "In the past, LANSCE was used for a variety of scientific investigations of nuclear weapons and basic science, but today, its usefulness in these roles is limited," the administration said in a statement justifying the decision to cut the money.
    National Nuclear Security Administration spokesman Damien LaVera said Tuesday that the agency still thinks the accelerator is "making important contributions," and said a review is under way this year to determine the big machine's fate.
    Eliminating money for the upgrade would save $20 million in 2011. Elsewhere in the budget, the administration has requested a nearly $400 million budget increase at Los Alamos, primarily for nuclear weapons research and development.

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