COLUMBIA, S.C. - Former New Hampshire governor and presidential adviser John Sununu says he has been hired as a lobbyist to help the Savannah River Site land a proposed facility that would employ about 1,000 people.

"I don't usually do this kind of lobbying effort," said Sununu, a former chief of staff for the first President Bush. "But this is that important that I said I would carve out some of my time to give them all the help they needed."

Sununu, who could earn as much as $150,000 in the one-year lobbying contract, already is a couple of weeks into his effort, said Tim Dangerfield, chairman of the Economic Development Partnership for Aiken and Edgefield counties.

The former nuclear weapons complex in Aiken is one of five sites vying for a U.S. Energy Department facility that would make components for nuclear weapons.

The United States does not have a facility to make triggers, but environmentalists have said there's no need to build a new nuclear weapons facility when the country is disposing of some of its stockpile from the Cold War.

Other sites competing with SRS are Pantex near Amarillo, Texas; the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in Carlsbad, N.M.; the Los Alamos National Laboratory, in Los Alamos, N.M.; and the Nevada Test Site near Las Vegas, Nev.

Sununu was tightlipped, but confident about his lobbying plan. "I know the system in Washington fairly well," he said. "I know the people in Washington, but I don't want to go any further than that."

Sununu's son was elected to the U.S. Senate last year.

The Aiken area's lobbying efforts don't end with Sununu, however.

On Tuesday, elected officials from South Carolina and Georgia met with Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham to reiterate their support for the proposed facility going to SRS.

Republican Gov. Mark Sanford said he has supported locating the facility in South Carolina since he was elected last November.

"Nobody can compete with the combination of intellectual capital, infrastructure, safe history in dealing with plutonium or level of community support we bring to the table," Sanford said.

Officials have said a decision on where to put the modern pit facility, which could cost up to $4 billion, would come next year.

"When you look at it on paper, the Savannah River Site is the best location of all five sites," Dangerfield said. "But it's not just about expertise and the site ... it's about who you know and getting to the right people."

Calling SRS a "national treasure," Sununu said he feels strongly about this issue. "This is really the only intense focus I have right now," he said.

Once a site is chosen, construction could begin in 2011 with the plant operating sometime around 2018.