Senate appropriators' draft bill would raise Los Alamos pit production funding to $1.77 billion

LOS ALAMOS — A draft fiscal 2027 Energy and Water bill would put about $1.77 billion into Los Alamos National Laboratory's plutonium pit production, up about $463 million, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee's explanatory statement released Nov. 12 with the bill text; the committee has not voted on it.

The draft provides up to $20 million to restart interim measures against the Lab's hexavalent chromium plume, including up to $5 million to replace the county's PM-3 well and up to $2 million for remediation at Pueblo de San Ildefonso. It directs DOE to settle with New Mexico "expeditiously." The state has said it will pursue enforcement litigation over the plume absent a settlement, and DOE has said its treatment system is not operating.

The pit total includes $600 million for the Lab's Plutonium Pit Production Project and $90 million for the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement project, unfunded in fiscal 2026.

The committee says it "strongly supports" meeting the legal requirement of 80 war reserve pits a year.

The bill would give the National Nuclear Security Administration $28.8 billion, up 13 percent, according to the majority's bill summary. Lab cleanup would rise to $325 million from about $278 million.