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Discusses the legislation for a new tritium production project for Los Alamos National Laboratory. Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico versus Strom Thurmond of South Carolina; Plans for an accelerator to manufacture tritium; Support by scientific statesmen and Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary; Closure of the Savannah River nuclear reactor that provided tritium for nuclear warheads.

Reports on the impact of industrial competitiveness policies on New Mexico. Emergence of Cooperative Research and Development Agreements; Attitudes towards the private industry; Effects of the Cold War.

Opinion. Argues about the production of nuclear weapons in Los Alamos, in New Mexico looking specifically at weapons research. Plans of Hazel O'Leary, secretary of Energy for a nuclear weapons complex; Information on the plutonium pit in nuclear weapons; Relation between defense conversion and unemployment.

Comments on the downsizing initiatives at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Elimination of several jobs; Difference of Sandia from the Los Alamos and Lawrence laboratories; Sandia's acquaintance with the business world; Downsizing as a corporate positioning strategy.

Focuses on commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Trinity Site, New Mexico. Festive atmosphere; Debate over the necessity of similar bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan; Impact of the anniversary on Los Alamos, the site where the bombs were created.

Comments on employment and unemployment problems at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. United States Energy Department's preparation for at least 500 layoffs in 1995; Statement by the Galvin Task Force on Alternative Laboratory Futures on the excessive size of the lab; Los Alamos director Sig Hecker's restructuring of the lab in 1993.

Comments on the re-engineering program at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. Features of the program; Comment by Jim Tegnelia, executive vice president of Sandia; Proposals by Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary; Number of people to be affected by the program.