[September 15, 2008]

STILL GROWING: While the nation's other nuclear weapons labs have cut jobs, Sandia defies the trend

(Albuquerque Journal (NM) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sep. 15--After steady budget growth since 2000, Sandia National Laboratories is projecting stable funding at between $2.1 billion and $2.2 billion for the next few years, according to the labs' top budget official.

Headquartered at Kirtland Air Force Base with a small campus in California, Sandia designs and maintains nuclear weapon components.

Sandia's recent growth has defied a trend that has forced the nation's two other nuclear weapons laboratories -- Los Alamos in Northern New Mexico and Lawrence Livermore in California -- to cut jobs in recent years.

Sandia, meanwhile, hit an all time employment peak in 2007 at 10,845, and expects relatively stable budgets and employment levels for the foreseeable future, according to Richard Conaway's analysis.

All but about 1,000 of those people work at Sandia's Albuquerque headquarters, making the labs one of the city's largest employers.

The difference between Sandia and the other labs is a significant increase since 2000 in work outside the nuclear weapons program, for other federal agencies.

Sandia is owned by the National Nuclear Security Administration, a federal agency that is part of the U.S. Department of Energy. But Sandia has increasingly reached beyond its parent agencies for work, contracting especially with the Pentagon and intelligence agencies to perform research and development work.

The fact that those agencies keep coming back with new research contracts suggests Sandia's efforts are working.

"That must mean they from their perspective they're a satisfied customer," Conaway said in a recent interview.

At Sandia, nuclear weapons spending has declined 19 percent since its peak in 2004. But Sandia has made up for that with a 26 percent increase in work for other federal agencies over the same period.

In 1999, Sandia had nearly 2,000 workers devoted to work for other federal agencies outside the nuclear weapons and Department of Energy programs. By this year, that had risen to 3,278, according to Conaway's data.

The shift to work for other federal agencies has created a dilemma, because the National Nuclear Security Administration still must function as the landlord, paying for the buildings and equipment that are then used by the other agencies.

All that basic infrastructure -- buildings and equipment, along with the lab's scientific talent -- provides the leverage that allows Sandia to land work for other federal agencies. The question for NNSA and the labs is how to maintain that base of expertise as the funding for nuclear weapons declines in coming years.

In a recent interview, the NNSA's top science official, Dimitri Kusnezov, said the agency is hoping to sign long term agreements with other federal agencies to help support the basic infrastructure at Sandia and the other labs.

As an example, Kusnezov pointed to the Red Storm supercomputer at Sandia, which NNSA paid for. "Work for others doesn't allow you to buy a Red Storm," Kusnezov said.

Sandia National Labs: by the numbers

BUDGET: $2.2 billion

EMPLOYMENT: 10,845 in 2007

MISSION: Designs, maintains nuclear weapon components as well as wide variety of non-nuclear research and development

WHERE: Kirtland Air Force Base

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