Budget & Policy

The Nuclear Waste Fund held $42.6 billion in U.S. Treasury securities at the end of the 2020 fiscal year, up from $40.9 billion last year, according to this year’s annual independent Department of Energy audit. Accounting firm KPMG performs the audit each year under the DOE’s Office of Inspector General. The federal fund is meant […]

Plutonium pits, Cold War liquid waste and stricter policing of the contractor base are among the biggest management challenges for the Department of Energy in fiscal year 2021, the agency’s Inspector General wrote this week in the latest version of an annual report. Pits are new on the Inspector General’s list this year, but liquid […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the ExchangeMonitor staff is tracking this week. Because many offices will be closed after Wednesday for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, the Monitor has also included some events scheduled for next week. November 24 – Jacobs fourth quarter earnings call. Corporate leadership scheduled to brief […]

On Wednesday, as Congress prepared for final negotiations on a must-pass bill that could increase the Pentagon’s say over civilian nuclear-weapons programs, the former head of those programs said the defense department needs less, not more, sway over such matters. The Pentagon and the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Security Administration (NNSA), a semi […]

The Government Accountability Office took a victory lap for a series of investigations it made into the now-cancelled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., saying the move saved some $13 billion. “Construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility [MFFF], initially estimated to cost about $4.8 billion, was […]

The chair of the House Armed Services Committee had bitter medicine in a big spoon for disarmament advocates Wednesday: getting rid of nuclear weapons is a losing message that may have cost Democrats a chance to slow down procurement of next-generation, nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles. “We’re losing this argument because we lost seats in the […]

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced a bill that would require the Department of Energy secretary to present an annual report on the U.S. inventory of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Starting in January 2022, the American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2020 (ANIA) would require DOE to report: how much money the […]

On Wednesday, as Congress prepared for final negotiations on a must-pass bill that could increase the Pentagon’s say over civilian nuclear-weapons programs, the former head of those programs said the defense department needs less, not more, sway over such matters. The Pentagon and the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Security Administration (NNSA), a semi […]

The Government Accountability Office took a victory lap for a series of investigations it made into the now-cancelled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., saying the move saved some $13 billion. “Construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility [MFFF], initially estimated to cost about $4.8 billion, was […]

The Government Accountability Office took a victory lap for a series of investigations it made into the now-cancelled Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., saying the move saved some $13 billion. The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility was initially forecast to cost $4.8 billion, but “[i]n response to […]

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced a bill that would require the Department of Energy secretary to present an annual report on the U.S. inventory of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Starting in January 2022, the American Nuclear Infrastructure Act of 2020 (ANIA) would require DOE to report: how much money the […]

Monday-Thursday: The American Nuclear Society will hold a four-day virtual winter meeting from Monday to Thursday this week. Participants can register here.  Wednesday:  Nuclear Deterrence Forum with Lt. Gen Frank Klotz, former administrator, National Nuclear Security Administration. Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Transforming National Security Nuclear Policy For A New Era. Ploughshares Fund. Thursday: Members […]

Steve Winberg was appointed acting under secretary of energy, replacing Mark Menezes who was elevated to deputy secretary according to a Dear Colleagues letter circulated late last week by Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. Winberg was most recently the assistant secretary for fossil energy: a direct report to the undersecretary of energy.  Also, Brouillette wrote, […]

With the Department of Energy and other federal agencies now working under a continuing budget resolution keeping spending at 2020 levels, the Senate Appropriations Committee finally released its fiscal 2021 budget proposal Tuesday that would keep nuclear cleanup at the 2020 level of nearly $7.5 billion. The Senate Appropriations’ Energy and Water Development bill would […]

Mark Gilbertson, a longtime Department of Energy manager, is the new associate principal deputy assistant secretary for regulatory and policy affairs for nuclear cleanup. Gilbertson takes over the post vacated through the Oct. 30 retirement of Elizabeth “Betsy” Connell at the Office of Environmental Management (EM). His appointment was reflected in both an updated organization […]

Editor’s note: The Department of Energy recently finalized the first changes in more than 15 years to its Nuclear Safety Management rule, codified in Title 10, Part 830 of the Code of Federal Regulations. This rule governs the conduct of DOE contractors and civil servants — not the conduct of contractors or employees of other […]

Lame-duck budget negotiations are officially underway, and the Senate’s opening gambit for the National Nuclear Security Administration was to give the agency the roughly $20 billion it sought for 2021: over $1 billion more than what the House of Representatives recommended. That’s according to a bill and an accompanying report the Senate Armed Services Committee released […]

Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette kept close tabs on then-National Nuclear Security Administration boss Lisa Gordon-Hagerty for months, sending chaperones to her meetings with Congress and monitoring her personal calendar before abruptly demanding her resignation last week, a source told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. It was a dramatic end to a year of strife between the […]

Editor’s note: The Department of Energy recently finalized the first changes in more than 15 years to its Nuclear Safety Management rule, codified in Title 10, Part 830 of the Code of Federal Regulations. This rule governs the conduct of DOE contractors and civil servants — not the conduct of contractors or employees of other […]

There is a decent chance, perhaps 50/50, of the lame duck session of Congress reaching a deal on a major omnibus appropriations package for fiscal 2021, a Department of Energy-savvy panel of Washington watchers said Thursday. Both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), hope to pass a 2021 spending […]

President-elect Joe Biden unveiled his transition team this week, and though the landing team bound for the Department of Energy was 20 deep and stacked with nuclear-savvy ex-DOEers, the announcement revealed little about the incoming chief-executive’s thinking on nuclear waste issues. On the website, President-elect Biden outlines plans to drive cost reductions in clean energy […]

In a budget bill released Tuesday, Senate appropriators agreed with their House colleagues that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should get about $850 million in fiscal year 2021, with $27.5 million for a non-Yucca-Mountain consolidated nuclear-waste storage facility. The proposal released Tuesday by the Senate Appropriations Committee recommends the requested $849.9 million for the Nuclear Regulatory […]

The Senate unveiled its appropriations bill this week and Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) got what they asked for: No Yucca Mountain funding this year. The U.S. senators wrote a letter in opposition to the facility to the Senate committee tasked with appropriating the funds Nov. 6. “The Yucca Mountain site […]

With the Department of Energy and other federal agencies now working under a continuing budget resolution keeping spending at 2020 levels, the Senate Appropriations Committee finally released its fiscal 2021 budget proposal Tuesday that would keep nuclear cleanup at the 2020 level of nearly $7.5 billion. The Senate Appropriations’ Energy and Water Development bill would […]

Lame-duck budget negotiations are officially underway, and the Senate’s opening gambit for the National Nuclear Security Administration was to give the agency the roughly $20 billion it sought for 2021: over $1 billion more than what the House of Representatives recommended. That’s according to a bill and an accompanying report the Senate Armed Services Committee […]

In a budget bill released Tuesday, Senate appropriators agreed with their House colleagues that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission should get about $850 million in fiscal year 2021, with $27.5 million for a non-Yucca-Mountain consolidated nuclear-waste storage facility. The proposal released Tuesday by the Senate Appropriations Committee recommends the requested $849.9 million for the Nuclear Regulatory […]

In addition to major national news outlets declaring that former Vice President Joe Biden (D) is president-elect, defeating incumbent President Donald Trump (R), pending any recounts and legal appeals, there were other election updates over the weekend that potentially affect the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons complex. In Nevada’s 3rd congressional district, first-term incumbent Rep. […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the ExchangeMonitor staff is tracking this week. Monday: Today at 2 p.m. Eastern Time is the deadline to register for an online proposal conference on a new technical assistance contract potentially worth $100 million at the Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico. The […]

Among the many subplots of the still-undecided White House contest between President Donald Trump (R) and former vice president Joe Biden (D) is the makeup of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Matthew Moury, the Department of Energy’s associate undersecretary for environment, health, safety, and security, was nominated to a post on the maximum-five-member Defense Nuclear […]

Most congressional incumbents hung on this election, as they typically do, but a few open seats in a few districts and states that host National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sites means there are a few new faces representing the neighbors of the nuclear security enterprise — or in the case of a New Mexico congressman […]