Budget & Policy

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The White House has received a list of candidates for positions on the federal Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB), but there was no word this week on when they might be appointed. Nine of the current 10 members of the independent advisory agency are serving past the expiration of their terms […]

Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), whose Nashville, Tenn.-centered congressional district is more than 100 miles from the nearest nuclear security site, will lead the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee that sets policy for Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) will be the ranking member on the subcommittee, which writes the parts of […]

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) thinks the Department of Energy may not have the authority to fund a new uranium enrichment cascade under a $115 million sole-source contract announced with Centrus Energy earlier this month. “Congress did not authorize or fund this project in the 2019 annual budget appropriations process,” Barrasso wrote in a Wednesday letter […]

More planned nuclear weapons programs will roll into production phases in the decade ending in 2028, increasing the total annual cost of these efforts by some $10 billion to $50 billion a year, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday. The spending estimate for 2019 through 2028 includes: the Department of Energy’s (DOE) bill for maintaining and […]

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said this week she will run for president in 2020, becoming the fourth female lawmaker to seek the Democratic nomination. Harris, 54, made her official announcement Monday in an interview with ABC. She has served in the upper chamber since 2017, and previously served as California’s attorney general from 2011 to […]

Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), whose Nashville, Tenn.-centered congressional district is more than 100 miles from the nearest nuclear security site, will lead the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee that sets policy for Department of Energy nuclear weapons programs. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) will be the ranking member on the subcommittee, which writes the parts of […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Trump administration is likely in its fiscal 2020 federal budget plan to again propose funding for licensing the radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, nuclear industry representatives said here Tuesday. But whether Congress will appropriate any money remains in question. “I think the budget request for the next fiscal […]

Governors from 22 western U.S. states and territories are calling on the new Congress to advance a solution to the long impasse over disposal of the nation’s radioactive waste. Radioactive waste management was among the many issues for state and federal cooperation included in the Western Governors’ Association’s priorities list, mailed Jan. 14 to House […]

Starting today, Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will be published at 10 a.m. Eastern time Monday to Thursday. We hope this will enable the ExchangeMonitor to bring you the freshest news from the nuclear sector.

The Department of Energy is not caught directly in the partial federal government shutdown, but the Hanford Site in Washington state is still feeling some effects indirectly. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is a Hanford regulator and one of the three signatories to the Tri-Party Agreement that governs cleanup at the former plutonium production complex. […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) has thrown its weight behind the Department of Energy’s case for reinterpreting the definition of high-level radioactive waste based primarily on its risk characteristics and not its source of origin. The organization, representing about 100 DOE contractors, filed its formal comments endorsing the reinterpretation shortly after the department proposed […]

The White House this week teed up a radical reshaping of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), proposing to add two new members to the independent federal watchdog and boot one member. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Trump administration nominated a combined four people to the board. The nominees include new faces and existing board […]

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) this week announced her campaign for president in 2020, becoming the second Senate Armed Services Committee member and the third female lawmaker currently on Capitol Hill to announce a bid. Gillibrand, who joined the Senate in 2009, has long been considered a potential Democratic candidate for president. On Tuesday she revealed she […]

A lawsuit between the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the prime contractor for a canceled plutonium-disposal plant in South Carolina is on hold for the duration of the partial government shutdown, according to a filing with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Judge Thomas Wheeler last week granted the unopposed motion to stay the lawsuit […]

The White House this week teed up a radical reshaping of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), proposing to add two new members to the independent federal watchdog and boot one member. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Trump administration nominated a combined four people to the board. The nominees include new faces and existing board […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday announced four leadership changes and other churn among its seven subcommittees for the 116th Congress, but only one gavel hand-off among the Republicans who remain in the majority. Notably for nuclear weapons programs managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) became the ranking member of […]

The White House this week renominated William Bookless to be principal deputy administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA): the No. 2 post at the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon steward. Bookless was one of more than 150 nominees for senior executive branch jobs sent to the Senate on Wednesday. Many had been nominated […]

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) will be ranking member for the House Appropriations defense subcommittee for the 116th Congress, his office said this week. Calvert has served in the House since 1993. He was previously a member of the HAC-D subcommittee, serving as vice chairman in the 115th Congress. In a statement Tuesday, Calvert said the […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) has thrown its weight behind the Department of Energy’s case for reinterpreting the definition of high-level radioactive waste based primarily on its risk characteristics and not its source of origin. The organization, representing about 100 DOE contractors, filed its formal comments endorsing the reinterpretation shortly after the department proposed […]

U.S. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) will remain in a leadership role on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where last year he began a concerted push for a policy bill to advance the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository toward realization. With the Democrats taking control of the House in the November midterm elections, though, Shimkus […]

The White House on Wednesday renominated Rita Baranwal to lead the Department of Energy’s nuclear power and waste activities. Baranwal was among more than 150 people nominated for federal jobs late Wednesday, many of whom were previously nominated but did not get Senate votes before the last Congress ended on Jan. 3. When one session […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday, Jan. 22 — at the new publishing time of 10 a.m.

WASHINGTON — The leadership of the federal government’s independent health-and-safety watchdog for Department of Energy defense-nuclear sites is plagued by mistrust, one member said in an open meeting here Wednesday. “There’s a good deal of mistrust still among board members and, to put in bluntly, hurt feelings,” according to Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) member […]

The White House late Wednesday renominated William Bookless and Rita Baranwal for senior posts in the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration and Office of Nuclear Energy, respectively. The Donald Trump administration also nominated three people, include two current members, for terms on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board: the independent federal nuclear health-and-safety […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) has thrown its weight behind the Department of Energy’s case for reinterpreting the definition of high-level radioactive waste based primarily on its risk characteristics and not its source of origin. The organization, representing about 100 DOE contractors, filed its formal comments endorsing the reinterpretation shortly after the department proposed […]

In strongly worded comments, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other advocacy groups said the Department of Energy’s proposed plan to reinterpret the definition of high-level radioactive waste would violate the law and should be withdrawn. The Energy Department “has issued this HLW Reinterpretation Proposal in hopes of providing for itself the authority to define […]

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) will be ranking member for the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee (HAC-D) for the 116th Congress, his office said Tuesday. Calvert has served in the House since 1993. He was previously a member of the HAC-D subcommittee, serving as vice chairman in the 115th Congress. In a statement, Calvert said he looks forward […]

U.S. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) will remain in a leadership role on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where last year he began a concerted push for a policy bill to advance the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository toward realization. With the Democrats taking control of the House in the November midterm elections, though, Shimkus […]

A lawsuit between the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the prime contractor for a canceled plutonium-disposal plant in South Carolina is on hold for the duration of the partial government shutdown, according to a filing with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Judge Thomas Wheeler on Thursday granted the unopposed motion to stay the lawsuit […]

Former Air Force Col. Thomas Summers will join the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), if the Senate confirms the former ICBM oficer the Donald Trump administration intends to nominate. The White House late Friday announced its intent to nominate Summers to the independent federal nuclear health-and-safety watchdog. Summers would finish the remainder of a […]