New Mexico Mayor Thinks Plan to Transfer Nuclear Weapons Complex From DoE to DoD is Dead

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NM mayor: DoD won’t gain control of labs

By Heather Clark - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Feb 21, 2009 8:55:38 EST

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Mayor Martin Chavez said after a visit to the White House on Friday he thinks an idea to transfer the nation’s nuclear weapons complex from the Department of Energy to the Defense Department has been averted.

Chavez and mayors from around the country met with President Barack Obama to discuss the economic stimulus package and talked with a handful of Cabinet secretaries, including Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

Chavez says he talked with Chu about the Obama administration’s plans to study a transfer of oversight of the labs, including Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories, to the Pentagon.

An Office of Management and Budget memo made public earlier this month directed the two departments and the National Nuclear Security Administration to study the idea and report back by Sept. 30.

“I think that one is nipped in the bud,” Chavez said of the idea.

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/02/ap_obama_labs_dod_022009/