Budget & Policy

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) plans in fiscal 2020 to begin converting a canceled plutonium disposal facility in South Carolina into a plutonium pit factory while starting work on a replacement disposal facility. At a total of about $2 billion, the agency’s requested 2020 Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation budget “provides significant resources for strategic materials […]

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 Monday, includes more funding for a controversial low-yield nuclear warhead. The NNSA completed the first of these modified submarine-launched […]

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

WASHINGTON — The United States should cut its nuclear arsenal, the chair of the House Armed Services Committee reaffirmed at a major nuclear policy conference here Tuesday. “We need to reduce our nuclear weapons presence,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said. However, “I don’t agree that we ought to get rid of all of our nuclear […]

The Trump administration is again proposing to fund resumption of licensing for the long-planned, long-delayed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission, respectively the applicant and adjudicator for the license, together requested just over $154 million for the 2020 federal fiscal year. That is down by more […]

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. In a top-line budget plan issued Monday, senior DOE officials said the request fulfills […]

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 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. NNSA […]

For the second year in a row, the House of Representatives has approved legislation to reauthorize the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York. The bill, introduced by Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) and passed by voice vote March 5, is identical to the measure passed in September before Democrats retook control of the House The […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office should reconsider what work is deemed “operations” as opposed to “capital asset projects,” the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. Some operations, such as treatment and storage of radioactive liquid tank waste, should be subject to the higher degree of scrutiny applied to capital projects, the government watchdog said. […]

While it has taken initial steps, the U.S. Department of Energy is not collecting the information it needs to attack its $377 billion in environmental liability, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Wednesday. Liabilities at the Energy Department, including those of the Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, are examined […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) last month promoted Betsy Connell to associate principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Regulatory and Policy Affairs, deleting the “acting” from her title. Connell has been running the office on an interim basis since November. She took over for Mark Gilbertson, who became principal deputy […]

The trade organization for the U.S. nuclear industry has expressed deep reservations about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s fee collection plan for the current federal budget year. The NRC said in February it anticipated collecting $781.9 million in service and annual fees from licensees in fiscal 2019, the large majority of its $911 million budget through […]

Lawmakers from Nevada this week reintroduced two pieces of legislation intended to make it much more difficult, if not outright impossible, for the federal government to build a nuclear waste repository in their state. The bills dropped just days before the White House is due to roll out its budget request for fiscal 2020. Issue […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is seeking a replacement for the recently retired chief of staff for the Defense Nuclear Security office: the part of the agency responsible for guarding nuclear-weapon sites and materials. The window to interview replacements for Mark Roman, who retired earlier this year after 22 years of federal service, was […]

WASHINGTON — The United States does not need intercontinental ballistic missiles to prevent a nuclear attack on its territory, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said in a hearing here Wednesday — but a couple rank-and-file Democrats disagreed. “The problem with them is that they’re identifiable targets,” Smith said of ICBMs from the […]

Congress should consider raising the legal limit of full-time employees allowed to work at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the Government Accountability Office said in a report this week. The NNSA may employ no more than the equivalent of 1,690 full-time employees, according to the federal law that created the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous […]

The Senate Arms Services Committee on Thursday approved William Bookless, for the second time, to be second-in-command at the National Nuclear Security Administration. The committee approved Bookless, along with three nominees for non-DOE senior administration jobs, by voice vote at the top of a hearing.  Bookless is a former senior physicist at the Lawrence Livermore […]

For the second time, the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday approved four nominees for senior Department of Energy positions, including Rita Baranwal as assistant secretary for nuclear energy. By voice vote Thursday, the panel advanced all four to the full Senate. A committee press release did not say when the Senate […]

While it has taken initial steps, the U.S. Department of Energy is not collecting the information it needs to attack its $377 billion in environmental liability, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said Wednesday. Liabilities at the Energy Department, including those of the Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, are examined […]

WASHINGTON — The United States does not need intercontinental ballistic missiles to prevent a nuclear attack on its territory, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said in a hearing here Wednesday — but a couple rank-and-file Democrats disagreed. “The problem with them is that they’re identifiable targets,” Smith said of ICBMs from the […]

Members of Nevada’s delegation to Congress on Tuesday reintroduced legislation that would require the Department of Energy to obtain consent from state, local, and tribal governments before building a nuclear waste repository in a given state. The lawmakers left no doubt that their primary intent is to prevent DOE from building the repository at Yucca […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office should reconsider what work is deemed “operations” as opposed to “capital asset projects,” the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. Some operations, such as treatment and storage of radioactive liquid tank waste, should be subject to the higher degree of scrutiny applied to capital projects, the government watchdog said. […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission had a $408,479 unspent, unobligated balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund at the end of January, according to the agency’s latest monthly update to Congress. The NRC spent $4,073 in January: $2,444 for unspecified program planning and support and the remaining $1,629 on federal litigation. Established by Congress in 1982, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is seeking a replacement for the recently retired chief of staff for the Defense Nuclear Security office: the part of the agency responsible for guarding nuclear-weapon sites and materials. The window to interview replacements for Mark Roman, who retired earlier this year after 22 years of federal service, will […]

The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) last month promoted Betsy Connell to associate principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Regulatory and Policy Affairs, deleting the “acting” from her title. Connell has been running the office on an interim basis since November. She took over for Mark Gilbertson, who became principal deputy […]

The Senate’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday is scheduled to vote to approve, or not, four nominees for senior Department of Energy jobs, including the White House’s choice to lead the Office of Nuclear Energy. Along with Nuclear Energy office director-designate Rita Baranwal, the panel has scheduled confirmation votes for: William Cooper, DOE general […]

The trade organization for the U.S. nuclear industry has expressed deep reservations about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s fee collection plan for the current federal budget year. The NRC said in February it anticipated collecting $781.9 million in service and annual fees from licensees in fiscal 2019, the large majority of its $911 million budget through […]

The U.S. Department of Energy could do a better job of monitoring how its contractors spend billions of dollars in federal money, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday. A new GAO report recommends DOE entities, including the Office of Environmental Management and the semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, put more emphasis on how management and […]

Legislation filed on Feb. 22 in the Texas Legislature aims to give Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists a competitive edge in the national market for disposal of low-level radioactive waste (LLRW). Members of the state House and Senate introduced identical bills that would lower certain charges and reserve LLRW disposal capacity for Texas and Vermont at the […]

WASHINGTON — A former Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman and other issue experts made the rounds on Capitol Hill this week to argue for a top-to-bottom rethinking of management of the nation’s nuclear waste. “The situation in the U.S. is terribly broken, has been for decades, and without some major change to the program I don’t […]