Budget & Policy

Any funding for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel would need to be tied to Yucca Mountain, House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said yesterday at the 2016 Energy and Water bill markup. The House Energy and Water bill included a total of $200 million that would go toward Yucca Mountain […]

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.), re-introduced three pieces of legislation yesterday that would enhance and expand safety and security regulations at decommissioning reactor sites and the storage of spent nuclear fuel at nuclear plants. The […]

Over the Future Years’ Defense Program, nuclear funding is projected to occupy the highest proportion of the Pentagon’s budget in Fiscal Year 2020, a top Pentagon official told House lawmakers yesterday. Robert Scher, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans and Capabilities, during a House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces hearing, said the Defense […]

Funding for environment cleanup work at the Hanford and Portsmouth sites could be boosted above the Department of Energy’s request under the House version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, which underwent a subcommittee markup yesterday. While detailed site-level funding in the bill has not been released yet, subcommittee Chair Mike […]

House Appropriators included $200 million in the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water spending bill to push forward the Yucca Mountain licensing review, according to the bill released yesterday. The bill would appropriate $150 million to the Department of Energy for nuclear waste disposal activities as outlined in the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and $50 […]

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, according to a letter sent to Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz yesterday. Following the Department’s announcement last month to “de-comingle” the two waste streams, some House lawmakers saw the […]

Congress is reluctant to boost U.S. strategic capabilities to face the potential nuclear threat posed by Russia, two nuclear experts said yesterday during a breakfast event. “I’m not very confident that we will see the spending increases that we need to do something about beefing up the U.S. deterrent capability,” Dr. Mark Schneider, Senior Analyst […]

Funding for the Department of Energy’s cleanup efforts next year would be set at a total of approximately $5.91 billion under the House version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, set to undergo subcommittee markup today. The bill would provide approximately $100 million more than the Department of Energy’s budget request […]

House appropriators are proposing an increase in funding next year for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The House version of the FY 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, set to undergo subcommittee markup today, would provide a total of $29.9 million for the Board. That’s approximately $1.4 million more than the Board’s current funding […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration still hasn’t made a decision on whether it will exercise an option in Y-12/Pantex manager Consolidated Nuclear Security’s contract to fold in Savannah River tritium operations, and the agency hasn’t given any concrete signs when it will make the decision. In a letter to Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) last month […]

The Navy plans to release an RFP for the Ohio-class Replacement’s (OR’s) design phase in December, the chief of the service’s Submarines program said yesterday. “That will then fund the design work—both the [Navy shipbuilding budget] SCN and the research and development-funded elements through the lead ship,” Rear Adm. David Johnson, Program Executive Officer for […]

The White House yesterday again nominated Jonathan Elkind to serve as Assistant Secretary of Energy for International Affairs. Elkind was previously nominated for the position in early 2014, but was not approved by the full Senate before the end of the last Congress. He currently serves as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for DOE’s Office of […]

CH2M HILL announced a rebranding effort yesterday in which it shortened its name to CH2M and unveiled a new logo. The rebranding comes after the company released what it calls a “refreshed business strategy” in January that focuses on collaboration across its five business groups. “Through the years, CH2M has evolved from a regional engineering […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/10/2015 Six House lawmakers toured the long-shuttered Yucca Mountain site this week, in what critics have called a “political sideshow” to gain momentum to restart a project that has been closed off for five years. The group, led by House Environment and the Economy Subcommittee Chair John Shimkus (R-Ill.), toured […]

House appropriators are getting an early start on Fiscal Year 2016 spending bills and the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee will mark up the FY 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations Act at 10 a.m. Wednesday. It’s the earliest the subcommittee has marked up the bill in recent years as House Appropriations Committee chairman Hal Rogers […]

A Michigan U.S. Congressman plans to introduce a resolution today that calls on the President and Secretary of State to interfere in the construction of a Canadian deep geologic repository near the Great Lakes. Rep. Dan Kildee’s (R-Mich.) latest effort joins a list of state-side dissenters to the Ontario Power Generation’s proposed repository, which would […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) pointed to infrastructure improvements and state oversight as possible incentives that could be included in a bill to entice that state of Nevada to host the Yucca Mountain repository, he said during a press briefing late last week. Newhouse attended the House Environment and the Economy Subcommittee tour of Yucca Mountain […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 4/10/2015 President Barack Obama made it official this week, announcing that he intends to nominate White House nuclear energy official Joyce Connery and nuclear industry veteran Bruce Hamilton to serve on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. WC Monitor first reported last week that the two were the top candidates to […]

NNSA Says ‘Considerable Time’ Needed to Resolve TRU Facility Analyses WC Monitor 4/10/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration expects to take “considerable time” resolving issues with the documented safety analyses at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s facility for loading transuranic waste before allowing operations to restart, the agency said in a recent letter to the Defense […]

WC Monitor 4/10/2015 IN CONGRESS The Congressional Nuclear Cleanup Caucus will hold its second meeting of the year on April 15 with a panel of Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management officials focusing on “progress through partnership.” The meeting, to be held in Room 2325 of the Rayburn House Office Building from 5:00 pm. […]

The following phone interview with Nevada Office for Nuclear Projects Executive Director Bob Halstead was conducted by RadWaste Monitor reporter Jeremy L. Dillon this week just prior to the visit of a Congressional delegation to Yucca Mountain. Let’s jump into Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) visit to Yucca Mountain first, mainly because that’s happening this week. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/10/2015 A federal court is set to hear arguments next week concerning a suit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to propose carbon emission standards for existing coal-fired power plants. The lawsuit, brought by Murray Energy, argues that the EPA has acted beyond its authority in issuing the proposed rule. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/10/2015 The use of captured carbon dioxide for activities such as enhanced oil recovery will serve as an important bridge to the full deployment of carbon capture and storage technology, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy for Clean Coal and Carbon Management David Mohler said during a keynote presentation at the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/10/2015 While no firm decision has yet been made, if Boundary Dam Unit 3 proves to perform well consistently after being retrofitted with carbon capture utilization and storage technology, SaskPower may consider retrofitting Units 4 and 5 at Boundary Dam as well, newly appointed SaskPower President and CEO Mike Marsh […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/10/2015 Mississippi Power reported a new round of cost over-runs at their Kemper County Energy Facility in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late last week, though at a much smaller level than had been the trend in recent months. The company reported a total over-run of $8 […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/10/2015 President Barack Obama made it official this week, announcing that he intends to nominate White House nuclear energy official Joyce Connery and nuclear industry veteran Bruce Hamilton to serve on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. NS&D Monitor first reported last week that the two were the top candidates to […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 4/10/2015 If the Navy does not receive additional funding for the Ohio-class Replacement (OR), the next-generation ballistic missile submarine would consume about half of the shipbuilding budget during procurement, the shipbuilding base will be “severely degraded,” and the full battle force inventory will fall short of the amount required by the […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/10/2015 The Obama Administration should increase spending on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nonproliferation work to help the program prepare to address evolving threats, a Secretary of Energy Advisory Board task force said in a recent report. Funding for the NNSA’s nonproliferation account has dipped in recent years, dropping from $2.2 […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/10/2015 Because enhanced oil recovery operations differ from traditional oil production procedures in scope and timeline, they are potentially better situated to withstand falling oil prices, Patrick Falwall, Solutions Fellow with the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions and member of the National Enhanced Oil Recovery Initiate, said during a […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 4/10/2015 Rose Gottemoeller, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, joined Madelyn Creedon, Principal Deputy Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, April 9 for the first part of a two-day trip to Vatican City and Italy to discuss arms control and nonproliferation issues, including the Nuclear […]