Budget & Policy

EM Releases Field Office-Level Results From 2014 Employee Survey Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/20/2015 Federal employees at the Department of Energy’s Carlsbad Field Office appear to be the most concerned across the entire DOE cleanup program of potentially being punished for raising concerns, according to data the DOE Office of Environmental Management recently provided to […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 2/20/2015 The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board needs to do more to further improve internal procedures and controls, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released late this week. Before 2013, the Board had few written policies and procedures for its five members and its technical staff, according to the […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/20/2015 As the nuclear weapons complex moves from a period of sustainment to modernization, Congressional backing of the funding and strategy of the nuclear enterprise is higher than it has been in previous years, staffers from the House and Senate Armed Services committees said this week at the Seventh Annual Nuclear […]

Sandia Field Office Manager Geoff Beausoleil Named Replacement Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/20/2015 Steve Erhart, who helped stand up the National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office three years ago, is shifting to head up the agency’s new Office of Policy and he will be replaced by Sandia Field Office Manager Geoff Beausoleil. Office of Secure […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/20/2015 In an unexpected turn of events this week, the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board did not approve a draft memorandum endorsing a call to better integrate the National Nuclear Security Administration within the Department of Energy. SEAB members gathered for a teleconference Feb. 17 to approve the memorandum—and voice support for the […]

Staff Reports NS&D Monitor 2/20/2015 Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the new chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, which controls much of the Department of Energy’s funding, said last week that he expects to rely on Defense Secretary Ashton Carter for advice on the Uranium Processing Facility and other topics associated with nuclear […]

Mike Nartker NS&D Monitor 2/20/2015 The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board needs to do more to further improve internal procedures and controls, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released late this week. Before 2013, the Board had few written policies and procedures for its five members and its technical staff, according to the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/20/2015 As the Environmental Protection Agency wades through the millions of comments received on its proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, various common themes concerning timeline, stringency, cost and reliability have been raised and addressing those comments will result in a more flexible final rule, EPA Administrator […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/20/2015 Mississippi Power plans to challenge a recent ruling by the Mississippi Supreme Court reversing rate increases approved by the Mississippi Public Service Commission to help pay for construction of the Kemper County Energy Facility, a new build coal plant that will employ carbon capture, utilization and storage technology. Under […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/20/2015 The Department of Energy’s initiation of a structured closeout of federal support for the FutureGen 2.0 project is not necessarily the last nail in the coffin for the project, which plans to retrofit a decades-old 200 MW oil-fired unit at a mothballed power plant in western Illinois with carbon […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/20/2015 The importance of the development of large-scale carbon capture and storage demonstration projects within the European Union is set to be included in the European Commission’s Communication for a Strategic Framework for an Energy Union to be presented next week, according to a Jan. 30 draft of the document […]

Sequestration cuts would have a “devastating” and wide-ranging impact on the work National Nuclear Security Administration, NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz said yesterday. Speaking at the Nuclear Deterrence Summit in Washington, D.C., Klotz referred to the across-the-board sequestration cuts that would go into effect in Fiscal Year 2016 as the “800-pound elephant in the room” and […]

Steve Erhart, who helped stand up the National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office three years ago, is shifting to head up the agency’s new Office of Policy and he will be replaced by Sandia Field Office Manager Geoff Beausoleil. Office of Secure Transportation Assistant Deputy Administrator Jeff Harrell will replace Beausoleil as the head of […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/13/2015 The full-scale development of carbon capture and storage technology could be hindered by the perception that the technology is only intended to allow for the extended use of fossil fuels, a group of representatives from various non-governmental organization said last week during the Americas Forum hosted by the Global […]

An item in the Feb. 17 edition of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing incorrectly implied that a planned subcontract for borehole drilling at the Nevada National Security Site would be used to help examine the suitability of boreholes for high-level waste disposal. The purpose of the planned subcontract is to drill boreholes for the Underground Nuclear […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/13/2015 The deployment of bioenergy carbon capture and storage could offset emissions from gas and coal burning electric plants, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of California-Berkeley, the results of which were published In the journal Nature Climate Change this week. The study finds that […]

In an unexpected turn of events yesterday, the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board did not approve a draft memorandum endorsing a call to better integrate the National Nuclear Security Administration within the Department of Energy. SEAB members gathered for a teleconference quibbled over language in the letter related to a recommendation of the panel to […]

The New Mexico State Senate Friday unanimously reconfirmed state Environment Department Secretary Ryan Flynn in a 36-0 vote. Flynn has served in the position since April 2013 and has gained attention in recent months after imposing more than $50 million in penalties against the Department of Energy for violations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant […]

The Secretary of Energy Advisory Board is poised to endorse the central recommendation of the Congressional Advisory Panel on the Governance of the Nuclear Security Enterprise: moving the National Nuclear Security Administration back into the Department of Energy with an increased nuclear security focus among DOE leadership. The SEAB will meet via teleconference at 11:30 […]

The Seventh annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit kicks off this evening in Washington, D.C., and will run through Friday at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, with major speeches planned Wednesday from National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz, Russian Amb. Sergey Kislyak, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller, Navy Strategic Systems […]

The following interview with House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee Chair Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) was conducted last week by Weapons Complex Monitor Editor Kenneth Fletcher.  NS&D Monitor 2/13/2015 I’d like to talk a bit about the Department of Energy’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request and what some of your priorities will be going forward in […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 2/13/2015 In a four-team think tank exercise simulating defense budget planning in a tight fiscal environment, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) maintained the nuclear triad even as the prospect of a tight fiscal environment has surfaced, a CSBA budget analyst told the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) on […]

Todd Jacobson NS&D Monitor 2/13/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management contract management will remain on the Government Accountability Office’s High-Risk List for another two years, the government watchdog agency announced this week. GAO unveiled its list two years after it partially removed the agencies from its […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/13/2015 Given years of delays in the Department of Energy’s audits of contractor costs for non-M&O (management and operating) contracts, DOE should develop a risk-based comprehensive plan to undertake the reviews, the Department’s Office of Inspector General said in a report released this week. The IG review focused on delays in […]

Mike Nartker and Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 2/13/2015 Lawmakers this week questioned the Department of Energy’s proposed funding cut next year for cleanup work at the Portsmouth and Paducah gaseous diffusion plants. DOE’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request would provide $167 million funding for D&D work at Portsmouth, a cut of approximately $49 million from […]

The following interview with House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee Chair Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) was conducted last week by Weapons Complex Monitor Editor Kenneth Fletcher. WC Monitor 2/13/2015 I’d like to talk a bit about the Department of Energy’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request and what some of your priorities will be going forward in […]

Feb. 14 will mark the one-year anniversary of the radiation release that has shut down the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and brought the Department of Energy’s once-successful national transuranic waste program to a sudden, devastating halt with no clear end in sight.  The last year has brought more than its share of finger pointing, shoulder […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 2/13/2015 The National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management contract management will remain on the Government Accountability Office’s High-Risk List for another two years, the government watchdog agency announced this week. GAO unveiled its list two years after it partially removed the agencies from its […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/13/2015 SaskPower’s decision to retrofit Unit 3 of its Boundary Dam power station with carbon capture and storage was ill-advised and will cost the utility more than it’s worth, according to a new paper released this week by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, an Ottawa-based think tank. “CCS may […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 2/13/2015 The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal fired power plants is flawed and ineffective as drafted, but can be fixed by making changes to the glide path of reduction, adding a few years to the compliance schedule, adjusting the compliance formula for the rule and […]