The House Appropriations Committee passed, almost unanimously, a budget proposal that would cut funding for some nuclear weapons-related activities at Los Alamos National Laboratory in its fiscal 2009 budget.

Only U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, a Northern New Mexico Democrat running for a seat in the U.S. Senate, voted against it Wednesday.

The proposal, which still hasn't reached the floor of the House and Senate, contains several cuts, including a loss of about $100 million for construction projects at LANL.

That cut mostly would affect the lab's Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement project, estimated on the lab's Web site to cost between $745 million and $975 million by the time it's completed between 2013 and 2017, said Sam Simon, a Udall spokesman.

Construction has already started on the facility, which will replace several aging facilities at Los Alamos focused on nuclear materials research.

The committee proposal would also cut $145.3 million from pit manufacturing efforts at the lab. Pits are the explosive cores of nuclear weapons.

Greg Mello, president of the Los Alamos Study Group, which opposes nuclear weapons, thinks those cuts are a good idea, even if they means lost jobs in Los Alamos.

About 1,000 to 1,500 people would "have to find other work," Mello said. "Some of these cuts would, in the House bill, be partially compensated by increases in other areas. But staff and especially contractor shrinkage at LANL is a very good thing. It's too big."

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., however, said cutting pit production would be a mistake. "This bill is worse than the status quo," Domenici said. "Pit production is necessary, and I do not know of a single acceptable argument for the United States abandoning its production capacity. No other nation in the world with nuclear capabilities is standing still, which is exactly what this bill would accomplish for us."

The proposal also would ax $150 million across the Department of Energy complex for nuclear non-proliferation related activities, Simon said. "I don't know how much of a cut that would mean for Los Alamos, but obviously it would impact the lab," he said.

In addition, the proposal would cut $79 million across for computer-related activities, including $26 million at Los Alamos at a time when the Roadrunner supercomputer has just arrived at the lab and has broken massive speed barriers, Simon said.

Overall, Udall said the cuts are too deep and hit too many important areas, which, he added, is why he couldn't support the proposal. "Although this legislation contains many good provisions," he said, "it does not provide a path to the future for our national laboratories, and I could not support it."

Rep. Steve Pearce, a New Mexico Republican running against Udall for the Senate seat that Domenici is retiring from, characterized Udall's vote as a political move, especially considering Udall has voted for legislation in the past that would have meant cuts at the lab.

Udall was heavily criticized last July after he voted for a budget bill that included a $400 million hit to Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories. Udall defended his vote at that time because he said he wanted the labs to move more toward energy research and science programs.

"Apparently Tom Udall is now willing to walk away from his history of opposing many of the policies he said he believed in the past," Pearce said. "Today's flip-flop on funding cuts to Los Alamos National Labs is just another example of that election year transformation. It is, of course, good to know that he has changed his position and now supports what I have been supporting for many years. But it is shocking to recognize that he voted for the same exact cuts just last year."

Mello also criticized the vote, saying it contradicts Udall's statements that he wants change at the lab. "I am disappointed in Representative Udall's vote today, against a bill that would halt plutonium warhead core production and stop the expansion of LANL's plutonium factory complex," Mello said. "Thankfully, his vote made no difference."

The proposed budget also slashes all funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead program at Los Alamos. That program is aimed at building a new generation of what lab scientists have said is a more reliable, lower-yield alternative to weapons in the current stockpile.

In a June 17 statement, Energy and Water Chairman Rep. Peter Visclosky, an Indiana Democrat, said the program was "offered in a vacuum and there was no strategy behind it."

The next step in the process is for the Senate to come up with a parallel budget proposal, after which both bills will go to the floor for a vote. Last year, some similar cuts were proposed in the House for the lab's budget, but many were removed by the time the House and Senate bills reached the floor, Simon said.

Contact Sue Vorenberg at 986-3072 or svorenberg@sfnewmexican.com.