The Honorable Pete Domenici [Date] 120 S. Federal Place Santa Fe, NM 87501 Dear Senator Domenici: I am contacting you concerning the upcoming House/Senate conference on Energy and Water Development Appropriations that will determine the Department of Energy's budget for fiscal year 2008. First, thank you for your role in increasing the cleanup budget for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in the Senate's markup. However, I urge you to reconsider your support of the Senate's proposed funding levels for plutonium pit "trigger" manufacturing, the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement Project (CMRR; an advanced plutonium facility) at LANL, and new nuclear weapons under the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) Program. I request that you support the House's proposed levels that zeroed out RRW and CMRR and cut pit production nearly in half. Expanded pit manufacturing is being justified for two reasons - to manufacture spare W88 warhead pits for stockpile surveillance and new RRW warhead pits. The number, if any, of W88 and RRW warheads considered necessary for the future will not be known until bi-partisan nuclear weapons policy studies, required by new legislation, are completed. CMRR will directly support pit production at Los Alamos and could possibly ensure that the Lab becomes the nation's de facto permanent production center. Funding it is premature, at best, until the future configuration of the nuclear weapons complex is determined, a process now already underway. Until then, CMRR funding should follow funding for DOE's proposed Consolidated Plutonium Center, which both the House and Senate completely cut. New nuclear weapons under the Reliable Replacement Warhead Program should not be funded. The big question is over the future direction of U.S. nuclear weapons policy, including a commitment to global nonproliferation backed up by concrete example, and not over whether RRW is feasible or not. Additionally, the first RRW design is unnecessary in that it is a proposed replacement for the W76 warhead. But that warhead is currently undergoing a life extension program that will extend its service life for 30 years. Finally, I note last year's landmark study that concluded plutonium pits have reliable lifetimes of at least 85 years, double previous projections. That alone makes expanded plutonium pit production, CMRR and RRW unnecessary. They are not only a waste of taxpayers' money, but arguably will hurt our national security by convincing other countries that we are hypocritical when we preach that they can't have nuclear weapons, but yet we plan to keep ours indefinitely. Thank you for your consideration in these important matters. Again, I urge you to support completely cutting CMRR and RRW and reducing funding for plutonium pit production. Sincerely, [Name] [Address]