LANL, Sandia losing valuable ally in retiring ‘legend’

For years, C. Paul Robinson has used two letters to describe the biggest challenge to long-range planning at Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories — A.D.

For most people the letters stand for anno Domini, or the years after the birth of Jesus. But for Robinson, a former LANL scientist and former president of Sandia, the letters stand for After Domenici, in reference to U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M.

“He was a very powerful guy in deciding what gets done,” said Robinson, who first met Domenici in 1974 and is now semiretired outside Boulder, Colo.

Domenici’s retirement announcement Thursday means the state’s laboratories must prepare for more uncertainty, observers said. The New Mexico Republican has been a powerful champion of the labs who brought them a lot of money, and even though budget cuts are likely to come anyway, the labs will lose a powerful advocate.

Lonna Atkeson, a professor of political science at The University of New Mexico, said she believes the lab will start receiving less money with or without Domenici, but with him, the lab always had a strong supporter.

Domenici frequently came to the lab’s aid, said Brian Sanderoff, president of Research & Polling Inc. in Albuquerque.

“It seems like every year lately stories emerge that the national laboratories are up for a major budget slash, and more times than not, Domenici comes to the rescue,” Sanderoff said.

Hugh Gusterson, a professor of anthropology and sociology at George Mason University who studies the nation’s nuclear laboratories, said people will most remember Domenici’s career for the dollars he brought the lab. “It’s astonishing that 17 years after the end of the Cold War, the lab has gone without serious budget cuts,” Gusterson said. “A lot of it has to do with Domenici.”

Domenici’s departure leaves the lab vulnerable to budget cuts, Gusterson said.

The lab is currently waiting to see what will happen after a resolution allowing the lab to work at last year’s spending levels expires Nov. 16. Lab director Michael Anastasio has previously told workers the budget could be flat at best or a $350 million cut at worst.

Both Anastasio and the head of Sandia National Laboratories released statements Thursday praising Domenici for the work he has done over the years.

Domenici’s “dogged determination, as well as wisdom and vision, have enabled him to create or enhance untold policies and programs that protect all our nation’s citizens,” Anastasio said.

Tom Hunter, president and laboratories director at Sandia, thanked Domenici for the strong leadership he has given to programs vital to the nation’s security.

But Domenici’s legacy in terms of the labs doesn’t stop there.

Scott O’Malia, clerk of the U.S. Senate’s Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, of which Domenici is the ranking Republican, said Domenici was instrumental in starting stockpile stewardship, which requires scientists to maintain the nation’s nuclear weapons through computer modeling and simulation instead of full-scale testing.

When the program started, the nation did not have the computers necessary to do the modeling, O’Malia said, and Domenici helped scientists get the money for the computers. “I can’t stress how big that switch was,” O’Malia said.

Domenici has also been instrumental in nonproliferation efforts as well, O’Malia said. In 1998, Domenici helped provide $300 million to remove from Russia enough highly enriched uranium to make 20,000 warheads, O’Malia said. The United States took the bombs-grade uranium and diluted it so it could be used as fuel in nuclear power plants, he said.

“I am honored to work for Senator Domenici,” O’Malia said. “He’s a legend.”

On the subject of nuclear power, Domenici wrote a book published in 2004 called A Brighter Tomorrow: Fulfilling the Promise of Nuclear Energy. The Heartland Institute, a national nonprofit research group based in Chicago, published the book, and Jay Lehr, the institute’s science director, said Domenici has always been a strong supporter of nuclear energy.

“I think if we eventually make nuclear power the primary source of energy in this country, he will be primarily responsible for it,” Lehr said.

Greg Mello, head of the Los Alamos Study Group, a lab watchdog group, said many people view Domenici’s career as a financial blessing to the lab, but he questions the benefits of that money. The lab’s inflated budgets have “created a culture where waste is commonplace and accountability is missing,” he said.

Contact Wendy Brown at 986-3072 or wbrown@sfnewmexican.com.