Budget & Policy

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 4/10/2015 The International Atomic Energy Agency and National Nuclear Security Administration will support the Jamaican government in converting the Caribbean’s only research reactor from highly enriched uranium (HEU) to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel later this year, according to an IAEA press release. Housed at the University of West Indies (UWI) […]

GHG Monitor 4/10/2015 IN CONGRESS The House Subcommittee on Energy and Power will hold a hearing April 14 to review Chairman Ed Whitfield’s (R-Ky.) “Ratepayer Protection Act.” The bill is aimed at preventing the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing proposed carbon emissions standards for coal-fired power plants, under which the EPA would set state-specific emissions […]

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) tried to intervene this week as a means of getting a representative from the Nevada Office for Nuclear Projects onto the House Energy and Commerce Committee tour of the Yucca Mountain site, according to a letter he sent to Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. Heller requested that Moniz grant an additional […]

President Obama made it official, nominating White House nuclear energy official Joyce Connery and nuclear industry veteran Bruce Hamilton to serve on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Connery is currently the director of Nuclear Energy Policy in the National Security Council’s Office of International Economics, and she has been nominated to be the chair […]

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 pm. to 6:30 p.m., will be […]

The upcoming House Energy and Commerce Committee trip to Yucca Mountain will not include any representatives from the Nevada Office for Nuclear Projects. According to trip leader Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), the tour has already been filled to capacity, he said in an April 6 letter to Nevada Office for Nuclear Projects Executive Director Bob […]

The chairs of the various DOE Office of Environmental Management Citizens Advisory Boards are scheduled to meet April 22-23 in Augusta, Ga. The meeting is scheduled to involve discussions on several topics, including EM’s budget, waste disposition and safety culture, among other topics, according to a notice posted in the Federal Register yesterday. 

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 billion in Fiscal Year 2013 […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 Questioning whether former Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman complied with ethics guidelines and federal conflict-of-interest laws, lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this week launched a probe into Poneman’s recent appointment to CEO of Centrus Energy Corp. Earlier this month, the uranium enrichment firm, which under its […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 4/3/2015 White House nuclear energy official Joyce Connery and nuclear industry veteran Bruce Hamilton have emerged as the top candidates to fill the two vacant spots on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, WC Monitor has learned. Connery, who most recently has served as the director of Nuclear Energy Policy for […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 Risk reduction activities at the Savannah River Site’s 235-F facility would be largely put on hold in Fiscal Year 2016 under the Department of Energy’s budget request, DOE Savannah River Operations Office Manager Dave Moody told WC Monitor this week. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board urged action at the […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 4/3/2015 The Energy Communities Alliance, which represents local communities near Department of Energy sites, is urging DOE of Energy to create a “community adjustment and economic diversification planning assistance program” to help reduce impacts caused by funding cuts. The group wrote DOE this week, noting that the Department of Defense Office […]

WC Monitor 4/3/2015 IN CONGRESS House Armed Services subcommittees will begin marking up their portions of the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act April 22, with the Strategic Forces Subcommittee set to mark up its portion at noon April 23 in Room 2212 of the Rayburn House Office Building, HASC Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/3/2015 Coal demand in the United States is likely to continue its downward trend due, in part, to the adoption of environmental regulations and the low cost of lower-carbon fuel sources, according to a study released this week by the think tank Carbon Tracker. The increase in production of cheap […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/3/2015 The ongoing debate over the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emission reduction standards for existing coal-fired power plants is not as heated outside of Washington, Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy said during an event hosted by Politico this week. The proposed regulations, which have been met with resistance […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/3/2015 As the informal deadline for countries to submit their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) to the United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change hit this week, several countries, including the United States, announced their post 2020 climate goals. The U.S. targets closely mirror commitments made in November 2014 during […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/3/2015 Two members of the House Armed Services Committee, including South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson, are voicing concerns about the National Nuclear Security Administration’s decision to use The Aerospace Corporation to conduct a study on alternatives to the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility. In a March 25 letter to Energy Secretary […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/3/2015 Royal Dutch Shell had officially submitted a planning application for its Peterhead carbon capture and storage project with local officials in Scotland, marking a major step forward in the development of the project.  The Peterhead project will retrofit CCS technology onto a 385 MW portion of an existing gas-fired […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/3/2015 The Caledonia Clean Energy Project, which failed to secure funding in the United Kingdom’s carbon capture and storage competition, has been awarded £4.2 million for research support in a joint announcement by the Scottish and U.K. governments. The project is a 570 MW new-build integrated gasification combined cycle project […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/3/2015 The Department of Energy moved this week to extend a set of support contracts at the National Energy Technology Laboratory as the procurement for the new Mission Execution and Strategic Analysis (MESA) contract continues. The extensions were provided to Leonardo Technologies, which provides Program and Performance Management services; Booz […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/3/2015 White House nuclear energy official Joyce Connery and nuclear industry veteran Bruce Hamilton have emerged as the top candidates to fill the two vacant spots on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, NS&D Monitor has learned. Connery, who most recently has served as the director of Nuclear Energy Policy for […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 4/3/2015 Expanding access to electricity in developing nations, while also avoiding building a reliance on high-carbon fossil fuels like coal in those nations, became a point of discussion as the Board of the Green Climate Fund met last week in Songdo, South Korea. “The Fund will need to address two […]

Kenneth Fletcher NS&D Monitor 4/3/2015 Questioning whether former Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman complied with ethics guidelines and federal conflict-of-interest laws, lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this week launched a probe into Poneman’s recent appointment to CEO of Centrus Energy Corp. Earlier this month, the uranium enrichment firm, which under its […]

GHG Monitor 4/3/2015 IN THE STATES The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for coal-fired power plants could cost Virginia more than 38,000 jobs by 2030, according to a new report released this week by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, a Virginia-based research organization. The regulations in question would set emissions reduction […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 4/3/2015 The Department of Energy’s national laboratories are “choking” on a “proliferation of duplicative and burdensome” requirements, according to a Secretary of Energy Advisory Board task force on lab management, which recommended in a recently released interim report that the Department streamline administrative constraints on the labs. The task force said […]

Kenneth Fletcher RW Monitor 4/3/2015 Questioning whether former Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman complied with ethics guidelines and federal conflict-of-interest laws, lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this week launched a probe into Poneman’s recent appointment to CEO of Centrus Energy Corp. Earlier this month, the uranium enrichment firm, which under its […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 4/3/2015 With Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announcing last week his impending retirement at the end of 2016, it appears Yucca Mountain could receive a jolt of energy to rise from its shuttered status, industry and congressional sources told RW Monitor this week. Reid, one of Yucca Mountain’s staunchest […]

White House nuclear energy official Joyce Connery and nuclear industry veteran Bruce Hamilton have emerged as the top candidates to fill two vacant spots on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, NS&D Monitor has learned. Connery, who most recently has served as the director of Nuclear Energy Policy for the National Security Council, would be […]

Questioning whether former Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman has complied with ethics guidelines and federal conflict of interest laws, lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this week launched a probe into Poneman’s recent appointment to CEO of Centrus Energy Corp. Last month the uranium enrichment firm, which under its previous name USEC […]

The Department of Energy’s national laboratories are “choking” on a “proliferation of duplicative and burdensome” requirements, according to a Secretary of Energy Advisory Board task force on lab management, which recommended in a recently released interim report that the Department streamline administrative constraints on the labs. The task force said the “efficiency and operations” of […]