Budget & Policy

Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), a friend of the Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories who has spent the last two decades on Capitol Hill, on Monday announced he will not run for re-election in 2020. Rather than seeking a third term, Udall will leave the Senate in January 2021. Since 2009, Udall has occupied the Senate […]

The Department of Energy plans in fiscal 2020 to cut funding for cleanup at the Hanford Site in Washington sate in part because of progress made and projects completed, according to detailed budget documents released Monday. In total, funding for the two DOE offices at Hanford would drop by more than $400 million from current […]

The Donald Trump administration on Monday rolled out its full fiscal 2020 budget request for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management, which faces a roughly $700 million funding decrease from the current level. Overall, funding for the cleanup office would drop from almost $7.2 billion in fiscal 2019 to about $6.5 billion proposed for […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is seeking $410 million for fiscal 2020 to begin converting a canceled plutonium disposal plant in South Carolina into a factory to produce nuclear-warhead cores, the agency revealed Monday in its detailed 2020 budget request. The planned Savannah River pit plant will be called the Savannah River Plutonium Processing […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry will testify before the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee next week on his agency’s fiscal 2020 budget request. Perry is the only witness scheduled to appear before the panel at 10 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday at Rayburn House Office Building Room 2362-B in Washington, D.C. The subcommittee is led […]

The Department of Energy is requesting more than $900 million for liquid waste treatment at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the largest chunk of a $2.67 billion proposal for all facility operations in fiscal 2020. That sum is the most in the DOE complex for nuclear cleanup sites. It is about $42 million more than what Savannah River is […]

The Department of Energy indicated Monday it intends in the upcoming budget year to cut tens of millions of dollars from environmental remediation funding at some of its national laboratories. As part of the continuing rollout of the Trump administration budget plan for fiscal 2020, the Energy Department released preliminary funding tables for its laboratories. […]

The Trump administration is proposing to shift management of cleanup of more than 20 radioactively contaminated former nuclear sites from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers back to the Department of Energy. The Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) would be placed into the portfolio of DOE’s Office of Legacy Management, accounting for nearly all […]

Daniel Santos last week resigned from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) after a little more than four years on the job, the independent nuclear health-and-safety watchdog confirmed Monday. A spokesperson for the DNFSB said Santos’ last day will be March 29. The board had previously announced on its website, without naming names, that one […]

The Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects would get a small raise in the next two budget years to sustain the fight against federal plans to build a nuclear waste repository in the state The agency is funded at slightly over $1.8 million in the state’s current budget year, from July 1, 2018, to June 30, […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry will testify before the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee next week on his agency’s fiscal 2020 budget request. Perry is the only witness scheduled to appear before the panel at 10 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday at Rayburn House Office Building Room 2362-B in Washington, D.C. The subcommittee is led […]

Daniel Santos last week resigned from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) after a little more than four years on the job, the independent nuclear health-and-safety watchdog confirmed Monday. A spokesperson for the DNFSB said Santos’ last day will be March 29. The board had previously announced on its website, without naming names, that one […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Monday broke down how much of its requested $16.5 billion budget for fiscal 2020 would go to each of its nuclear-weapon labs. However, the Department of Energy branch had not still published its detailed 2020 budget request at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. The Energy Department did not reply […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry will testify before the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee next week on his agency’s fiscal 2020 budget request. Perry is the only witness scheduled to appear before the panel at 10 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday at Rayburn House Office Building Room 2362-B in Washington, D.C. The subcommittee is led […]

The Trump administration is proposing to shift management of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers back to the Department of Energy. The program would be placed into the portfolio of DOE’s Office of Legacy Management, accounting for nearly all of its $144 million funding increase for the […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Monday broke down how much of its requested $16.5 billion budget for fiscal 2020 would go to each of its nuclear-weapon labs. However, the Department of Energy branch had not still published its detailed 2020 budget request at deadline Tuesday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing. The Los Alamos National Laboratory in […]

The Department of Energy indicated Monday it intends in the upcoming budget year to cut tens of millions of dollars from environmental remediation funding at some of its national laboratories. As part of the continuing rollout of the Trump administration budget plan for fiscal 2020, the Energy Department released preliminary funding tables for its laboratories. […]

The Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects would get a small raise in the next two budget years to sustain the fight against federal plans to build a nuclear weapons repository in the state, under the new biennial budget from Gov. Steve Sisolak (D). The agency is funded at just over $1.8 million in the state’s […]

Daniel Santos last week resigned from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) after a little more than four years on the job, the independent nuclear health-and-safety watchdog confirmed Monday. A spokesperson for the DNFSB said Santos’ last day will be March 29. The board had previously announced on its website, without naming names, that […]

The Department of Energy is proposing a $417 million cut to funding for environmental remediation at the Hanford Site in Washington state, while boosting spending for liquid waste management at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina by $91 million. On March 11, the agency rolled out the broad outlines of its fiscal 2020 budget […]

The White House is seeking $16.5 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for fiscal 2020: a roughly 8-percent increase from just over $15 billion in 2019 that, a senior Department of Energy official said this week, includes more funding for a controversial low-yield nuclear warhead. The NNSA completed the first of these modified, […]

New political leaders at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have tamped down on internal discord and improved the agency’s relationship with the Pentagon, but the Department of Energy nuclear weapons steward should appoint a senior executive to ensure progress does not end when those political leaders depart, the National Academies said in a new report. […]

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said this week she will block the Senate from quickly confirming nominees for senior Department of Energy jobs until the agency sets a date to remove half-ton a ton of plutonium from Nevada. “Until I get commitment from [Secretary of Energy Rick Perry] that [DOE] will set a date for […]

WASHINGTON — To give the Pentagon more money to spend in the future, the United States could buy fewer new intercontinental ballistic missiles and again extend its aging fleet of nuclear-tipped Minuteman III missiles, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said at a conference here Wednesday. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) has said nuclear […]

The Donald Trump administration has proposed a $6.5 billion budget for the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management in fiscal 2020, slightly less than the $6.6 billion requested last year but 11 percent below the $7.2 billion eventually enacted by Congress. The office’s funding for the budget year that began Oct. 1 is its largest […]

A Senate Appropriations Committee staffer and former Department of Energy nuclear fuel cycle specialist confirmed this week he is being considered for nomination to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. An informed source said Christopher Hanson is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) preferred candidate to fill the vacancy that will open when Commissioner Stephen Burns retires […]

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said this week she will block the Senate from quickly confirming nominees for senior Department of Energy jobs until the agency sets a date to remove a half-ton of plutonium from Nevada. “Until I get commitment from [Secretary of Energy Rick Perry] that [DOE] will set a date for the […]

The Department of Energy does not know yet what action it will take on its proposed reinterpretation of the definition of high-level radioactive waste (HLW), Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White said last week. “We don’t have a real distinct schedule on that. Again, we are trying to take our time and be deliberative,” […]

The Trump administration this week again proposed to fund resumption of licensing for the long-planned, long-delayed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The state’s congressional delegation immediately pushed back against the latest White House budget plan, reminding President Donald Trump that he suggested last fall he would oppose the disposal facility. The Department of […]

A Senate Appropriations Committee staffer and former Department of Energy nuclear fuel cycle specialist confirmed Tuesday he is being considered for nomination to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. An informed source said Christopher Hanson is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) preferred candidate to fill the vacancy created when Commissioner Stephen Burns retires on June 30 […]