NM Labs look OK under Obama's budget plan

Los Alamos National Laboratory would see a 7 percent budget increase while Sandia's spending would remain basically flat under the Obama Administration budget plan unveiled on Wednesday.

 The Department of Energy spending proposal requests $1.96 billion for Los Alamos and $1.8 billion for Sandia in fiscal 2014. Total spending for cleanup of radioactive waste at Los Alamos would rise 16 percent to $215 million. 

NNSA officials say that given the tight budget times, they are also going back to reevaluate what might be done to more affordably upgrade the plutonium research facilities at Los Alamos. 

The administration last year proposed putting on hold any further work on a controversial $6 billion project known as the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Nuclear Facility.

NM Labs look OK under Obama's budget plan