Budget & Policy

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) announced Wednesday he would not seek re-election, removing a prominent voice on nuclear waste issues from Congress a year from now. Issa has represented a coastal zone north of San Diego, first in the 48th Congressional District and now in the 49th District, since 2001. His exit, announced in a […]

WASHINGTON — Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) wrung a renewed commitment from the Department of Energy to open a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., during a hearing here Tuesday. Shimkus, Congress’ chief advocate for Yucca, pinned down Dan Brouillette, deputy energy secretary, on the agency’s position during a three-hour House […]

WASHINGTON — National Nuclear Security Administrator Frank Klotz told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing on Tuesday he will retire from the semiautonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapon agency on Jan. 19. If he leaves the agency as planned in two weeks, the retired Air Force lieutenant general will have helmed the NNSA for three years, nine months, and […]

WASHINGTON — The semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) might not need all the semiautonomy it has now, Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said here Tuesday in congressional testimony. As part of a three-hour hearing on modernizing the Department of Energy, Brouillette said it was “awkward” that the NNSA has its own legislative affairs […]

Contract management and technical expertise are the major reasons the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) will now report to DOE’s Office of Science, officials said Tuesday during a congressional hearing. Energy Secretary Rick Perry announced the new home for EM on Dec. 15 as part of a larger DOE reorganization. EM had been […]

The White House late Monday sent the nomination of energy industry consultant Anne M. White for assistant secretary of energy for environmental management, or EM-1, to the Senate. A Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee staffer said Tuesday no confirmation hearing has been scheduled yet on the nomination. An industry source said Monday he believes […]

An article in the Jan. 8 edition of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, “Nuclear Security In Congressional Cross Hairs in House Hearing This Week,” should have said the head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management reports to DOE Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar.

David Jonas, who President Donald Trump last year nominated to be the Department of Energy’s general counsel, no longer wants the job, according to a LinkedIn post Jonas published late Sunday. “In considering the additional months that would be required for final confirmation, as well as my professional responsibilities at FH+H Law Firm, I respectfully […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Tuesday will discuss how the fundamental structure of the Department of Energy has contributed to “notable” challenges within the agency’s nuclear security enterprise, including managing contractors. The hearing, “DOE Modernization: Advancing DOE’s Mission For National, Economic, and Energy Security Of The United States,” is on the slate for […]

The U.S. Department of Energy must be prepared to safely manage its 2,510-metric-ton stockpile of spent nuclear reactor fuel for decades until it can be placed in a permanent repository, according to new findings from a federal panel of experts. “While disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) in a deep […]

Three Trump administration nominees to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission remain in consideration by the Senate even many other would-be appointees to senior federal jobs were returned to the White House this week. Annie Caputo, David Wright, and Jeff Baran are on the “status quo list,” approved by unanimous Senate consent before the holidays, which […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) will remain without a full-time general counsel for a while longer after a Senate rule that kicked in Wednesday automatically reset the confirmation process for the agency’s top lawyer. President Donald Trump nominated David Jonas as DOE general counsel in May, but the choice drew flack from Democrats on the […]

U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) have joined a number of state and local officials in voicing support for an Oregon company’s plans to build and operate a medical isotope production plant in Missouri. Corvallis-based Northwest Medical Isotopes (NWMI) plans to build a 70,000-square-foot facility at the Discovery Ridge Research Park in […]

President Donald Trump on Friday signed a third short-term budget for fiscal 2018 to prevent a shutdown of the federal government, including the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. His approval came just a day after both chambers of Congress voted in favor of the continuing resolution through Jan. 19, 2018. The latest stopgap spending plan succeeds […]

Centerra has won 96 percent of its potential fee award from the Department of Energy for providing a security force to protect the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. In particular, DOE in a new award-fee scorecard praised Centerra-Savannah River Site for establishing and testing an “active shooter response plan.” Centerra was also cited for […]

The House of Representatives is expected early in the new year to vote on legislation aimed at advancing the long-planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Multiple informed sources said the floor vote on Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) “Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act” could happen in the first couple months of 2018, possibly […]

Congress on Thursday adopted another budget continuing resolution to keep the federal government, including the Energy Department and its Office of Environmental Management, running through Jan. 19 The stopgap funding measure cleared the House in a 231-188 vote, and the Senate followed up with a 66-32 decision. Just before press time for Weapons Complex Monitor, […]

As expected, federal programs including nuclear-stockpile and nonproliferation work  managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration would continue running at 2017 budget levels until Jan. 19, under a stopgap budget bill expected to be signed Friday. Congress passed the so-called continuing resolution late Thursday. At deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor, President Donald […]

The White House has officially nominated National Security Council and Department of Energy veteran Lisa Gordon-Hagerty to replace retired general Frank Klotz as head of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA): the semiautonomous Department of Energy agency in charge of U.S. nuclear warhead stewardship and nonproliferation programs. The White House took the procedural step Tuesday, […]

The Democratic Nevada congressman whose district includes the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository will not seek re-election in 2018, depriving the minority party of an incumbent in a battleground district that has flipped three times since it was created. Rep. Ruben Kihuen (D-Nev.), a freshman lawmaker from the Silver State’s 4th Congressional District, announced […]

The House Appropriations Committee this week unveiled a peculiar budget bill that would provide full-year fiscal 2018 appropriations for the Pentagon, but keep other federal agencies including the Department of Energy funded at prior-year levels through Jan. 19. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) introduced the bill Wednesday. The Department of Energy (DOE), like […]

The House Appropriations Committee unveiled a peculiar budget bill this week that would provide permanent 2018 appropriations for the Pentagon, but keep other agencies including the Department of Energy funded at 2017 levels through Jan. 19. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) introduced the bill Wednesday. The Department of Energy (DOE), like the rest […]

The House Appropriations Committee this week unveiled a peculiar budget bill that would provide full-year fiscal 2018 appropriations for the Pentagon, but keep other federal agencies including the Department of Energy funded at prior-year levels through Jan. 19. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) introduced the bill Wednesday. The Department of Energy (DOE), like […]

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, which would make it harder to move plutonium pit production out of New Mexico and authorizes Congress to keep funding a controversial plutonium conversion facility in South Carolina. Trump signed the bill nearly a month after Congress sent the measure to his […]

The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday on oversight of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. All three sitting commissioners — Chairman Kristine Svinicki, along with Stephen Burns and Jeff Baran — are scheduled to appear before the panel to answer questions on NRC policy, and financial and management matters. […]

A senior industry source said Tuesday he is hearing an increasing amount of “chatter” that the Trump administration might early next year nominate someone to lead the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office. The source said the talk is circulating among a trusted circle of industry representatives who often share such rumors. Assuming approval by […]

Department of Energy nuclear budgets will stay at fiscal 2017 levels through Dec. 22, under a short-term continuing resolution Congress approved on Thursday. President Donald Trump was expected to sign the stopgap budget bill after deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. Without the new spending bill, federal funding would run out after midnight […]

The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository will stay on hold and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will escape a proposed budget cut until at least Dec. 22, under a short-term continuing resolution Congress approved on Thursday. At deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor, President Donald Trump was expected to sign the stopgap budget bill before midnight, when federal […]

Department of Energy nuclear budgets will stay at fiscal 2017 levels through Dec. 22, under a short-term spending bill the head of the House Appropriations Committee introduced Saturday. The Department of Energy (DOE), like the rest of the federal government, has been held at last-budget spending levels since early September, when Congress signed a continuing […]

Congress has received the Department of Energy’s report on options for disposal of Greater-Than-Class C and Class-C-Like Waste, setting the stage for legislative approval of the department’s preferred alternative to potentially divide the material between commercial sites and DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The Energy Department projects the United States will hold […]