Budget & Policy

The House’s 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill would allocate only $55 million for the Department of Energy’s Used Nuclear Fuel Disposition program, an approximate $53 million decrease compared to DOE’s requested amount and a $16.5 million decrease from the enacted 2015 budget. DOE was seeking approximately $108 million for its UNFD in 2016, including […]

House appropriators cut in half the Administration’s $100 million Fiscal Year 2016 request for work to sustain American Centrifuge uranium enrichment technology, but provided reprogramming authority to the National Nuclear Security Administration for the rest of the funding. The House Appropriations Committee will mark up the FY 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations Act today, and […]

A new pilot project to decommission the Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor in Arkansas would be launched in Fiscal Year 2016 under the House Appropriations Committee’s version of the FY 2016 spending bill, according to report language released yesterday. The bill would provide $9.5 million to DOE to address the aging and inactive experimental reactor […]

Most Department of Energy cleanup sites including Richland, Portsmouth and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant would see funding increases in the Fiscal Year 2016 House Energy and Water Appropriations bill when compared to DOE’s budget request, according to report language the House Appropriations Committee released yesterday. At Richland, DOE had proposed a $93 million cut […]

House appropriators are not supporting the Department of Energy’s request for funding next year for modifications at the Hanford tank farms to accelerate an effort to begin waste processing at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant’s Low Activity Waste (LAW) Facility ahead of other portions of the plant. The House version of the Fiscal Year 2016 […]

While budget markups in the House Appropriations Committee Wednesday and House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee Thursday will dominate much of the attention on Capitol Hill, there’s lots more going on this week:     This morning at 8 a.m., Lt. Gen. Steven Wilson, the commander of Global Strike Command, will address an audience at […]

The funding picture for the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Energy’s cleanup program will get a lot clearer this week when House appropriators and authorizers mark up the Fiscal Year 2016 House Energy and Water Appropriations Act and the FY 2016 National Defense Authorization Act. The House Appropriations Committee will mark up […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/17/2015 A group of Senators, including Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Member Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), reintroduced three pieces of legislation this week that would enhance and expand safety and security regulations for reactor sites undergoing decommissioning and for the […]

Ongoing discussions have been “productive” between the New Mexico Environment Department and the Department of Energy on $54 million in penalties the state has levied, NMED Secretary Ryan Flynn said last week, adding that he hopes to soon reach a resolution. In December NMED levied compliance orders that include $54 million in fines for violations […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/17/2015 The House version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water appropriations bill that cleared the subcommittee this week includes a total of $200 million that would go toward Yucca Mountain, but it does not include any funding for interim storage. Any funding for interim storage of spent nuclear […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 4/17/2015 A top Defense Department official told the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces this week that the U.S. is working with NATO’s conventional and nuclear planning groups on potential responses to Russia’s alleged violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. NATO is going to “look at this […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 4/17/2015 As the budgetary and strategic foundation for the rest of the Navy’s future shipbuilding program, the Ohio-class Replacement (OR) Program would cause a $154 billion total shortfall across Fiscal Years 16-35 at the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2015 funding level, according to Navy documents released this week. If the Navy procures […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/17/2015 A group of Democratic senators have begun to push back against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) effort to convince state officials to oppose the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for coal-fired power plants, issuing  a letter to governors this week urging them to support the proposal. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/17/2015 A group of state officials from Colorado, Virginia and Rhode Island warned this week that the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for coal-fired power plants would not provide enough time to implement market-based compliance options, such as a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system. Under the proposed […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/17/2015 House lawmakers debated a provision in recently proposed legislation that would extend the deadlines for compliance under the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal fired power plants until all legal challenges against the proposed regulations had been concluded during an Energy and Power Subcommittee hearing […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/17/2015 At least two of the three judges hearing a trio of cases calling for the overturn of the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants seemed to support the defendants’ position that the cases were premature as the rule has yet to be finalized, […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/17/2015 Funding for the Department of Energy’s fossil energy research activities would receive a small boost under the House version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill reported out of subcommittee this week. The bill would provide a total of $605 million, an increase of 8 percent […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/17/2015 Cutting greenhouse gas emissions domestically will not only have a negligible effect on global climate change but will also put the United States at an economic disadvantage, lawmakers said during a House Committee on Science, Space and Technology hearing this week. The purpose of the hearing was to examine […]

Rep. Pearce Has ‘Deep Concerns’ With Breidenbach’s Link to 2011 Incident Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/17/2015 The choice of Idaho National Laboratory’s Phil Breidenbach as the next head of Nuclear Waste Partnership , the managing contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, is being met with questions this week given his link to a previous […]

House Appropriators Also Move to Increase Hanford Budget Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/17/2015 As House Appropriators this week moved to boost funds for the Portsmouth site, Department of Energy Portsmouth Paducah Project Office Manager Bill Murphie emphasized the need for a stable funding level at Portsmouth. Cleanup funding at Portsmouth has been impacted by both […]

Jeremy L. Dillon WC Monitor 4/17/2015 House lawmakers are seeking more definitive answers from the Department of Energy regarding its decision to separate commercial and defense high-level radioactive waste into two repositories, sending a letter Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz this week. Following the Department’s announcement last month that it planned to “de-comingle” the two […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/17/2015 House lawmakers are seeking more definitive answers from the Department of Energy regarding its decision to separate commercial and defense high-level radioactive waste into two repositories, sending a letter Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz this week. Following the Department’s announcement last month that it planned to “de-comingle” the two […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 4/17/2015 The Fiscal Year 2016 Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account could help the U.S. avert the “disaster” that sequestration would visit upon the Nuclear Enterprise, but the emergency war fund cloaks the long-term budget crunch facing strategic forces, the ranking member on a House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee said during […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 4/17/2015 House appropriators are looking to give the National Nuclear Security Administration $50 million in reprogramming authority above a base level of funding in Fiscal Year 2016 to support a program sustaining the American Centrifuge uranium enrichment technology. The House Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee cleared this week its version of […]

Nonprolif. Account Funding Largely Matches $1.9 Billion Request Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/17/2015 Lawmakers on the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee cleared their version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill this week, and while there is a slight funding cut for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program, subcommittee Chairman […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/17/2015 Members of Michigan’s congressional delegation introduced this week a resolution in the Senate and House that calls on the President and Secretary of State to intervene in the construction of a Canadian deep geologic repository near the Great Lakes. The resolution from Rep. Dan Kildee (R-Mich.), along with Sens. […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 4/17/2015 House appropriators are looking to give the National Nuclear Security Administration $50 million in reprogramming authority above a base level of funding in Fiscal Year 2016 to support a program sustaining the American Centrifuge uranium enrichment technology. The House Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee cleared this week its version of […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/17/2015 With a significant focus in the National Nuclear Security Administration on modernizing the nation’s nuclear stockpile, lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee this week urged the agency to maintain a balance between production activities and maintaining scientific capabilities. Speaking at an April 15 budget hearing, Sen. Deb […]

NS&D Monitor 4/17/2015 IN THE DNFSB The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board would be funded at $29.9 million next year under the House version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, reported out of subcommittee this week. The bill would provide approximately $1.4 million more than the Board’s current funding level, and […]

Lawmakers on the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee cleared their version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill yesterday, and while there is a slight cut for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program, subcommittee chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said funding for the agency’s warhead life extension programs has been preserved. […]