RICHMOND - The Defense Department released $30 million yesterday for design work and preliminary construction at the proposed chemical neutralization plant at Blue Grass Army Depot.

The move will allow Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass, the contractor, to continue work through Sept. 30. An additional $40 million was released for the depot's sister site in Pueblo, Colo., and orders halting work on design and construction there were lifted.

But one prominent critic, Craig Williams of the Berea-based Chemical Weapons Working Group, called the day's events a sign that the Pentagon has shifted its top priority from protecting the public to saving money.

"Basically, this is life support," Williams said, describing the infusion of money this way:

"You're buried alive in a 6-foot pit, and somebody drills a hole and puts a straw in it so you can breathe."

A Pentagon spokeswoman could not be reached for comment last night.

In a memorandum yesterday announcing the release of the funds, acting Undersecretary of Defense Michael Wynne called for a redesign to shave hundreds of millions of dollars off the projected cost of the Kentucky and Colorado plants.

Wynne wants their costs brought in line with estimates from 2002, which were derived before any design work was done.

Williams calls those figures "place-holders."

"Nobody had enough information to plug a real number in there," he said. "Now they're saying it's a real number."

Those 2002 estimates were $2 billion for Blue Grass and $1.5 billion for Pueblo.

But after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Pentagon ordered that the destruction of chemical weapons be sped up. One way to do that is to build a bigger, costlier plant that can destroy the stockpiles more quickly.

Three years later, both projects are running well over the 2002 preliminary estimates. The Pentagon has said Pueblo is about $1 billion over budget.

Estimates of the cost of the Kentucky plant range from $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion. That plant would chemically neutralize the 523 tons of mustard and nerve agent the Army stores at the depot near Richmond.

A treaty requires the destruction of the entire U.S. stockpile by April 2012.

Officials pledged yesterday to keep working with the public as the project evolves. "We're looking at some pretty radical design changes," said Chris Midgett, project manager for Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass.

As for whether the Pueblo plant can be built for $1.5 billion, he said, "It's going to be difficult to hit that number for Pueblo, but it's possible."

The money released yesterday is part of about $400 million already appropriated by Congress but frozen by the Pentagon. Wynne also authorized the release of an unspecified portion of the $160.7 million appropriated this fiscal year for research and development at the plants.

But the memo also indicates that the Pentagon intends to hold firm to the $31 million budget appropriation proposed by President Bush for next year, far below what had been anticipated earlier. Similar funding levels are proposed for the next four fiscal years.