Budget & Policy

Senate Republicans made it official yesterday, naming Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) as chairman of the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. Alexander had been expected to assume the top spot on the panel since Republicans took control of the Senate in November. He served as the ranking member of the subcommittee for the last four […]

New House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said yesterday that he is opposed to one of the biggest recommendations made by the Congressional Advisory Panel on the Governance of the Nuclear Security Enterprise: moving the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration back under the Department of Energy. “I thought they made a lot […]

A top Air Force official who oversees the U.S. nuclear bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile fleets yesterday blasted critics of the service’s plans to modernize the air- and land-based legs of the nuclear triad, while echoing previous official statements emphasizing the urgency of upgrades to an aging arsenal. “You could be against us spending money […]

The Air Force decided on Friday to move forward with plans to expand the Powder River Training Complex (PRTC) used by B-1’s and B-52’s, choosing its originally preferred alternative of four possible options. “The Air Force decision incorporated a variety of mitigations devised to address, in a balanced manner, the concerns raised by the public, […]

NS&D Monitor 1/16/2015 IN THE NNSA Ken Ivey has been named senior scientific and technical advisor in the National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office, which oversees operations at the Y-12 and Pantex nuclear weapons plants. Ivey, who has been serving in the position on an acting basis, will be based at Pantex. Ivey has held […]

Brian Bradley NS&D Monitor 1/16/2015 Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James on Jan. 14 said the Long Range Stand-Off Weapon (LRSO) will be analyzed under a new set of acquisition criteria which will assess the relationship between costs and capability requirements. Officials to achieve a lower cost estimate by slightly relaxing capability requirements. The future […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 1/16/2015 Yucca Mountain supporter John Shimkus (R-Ill.) believes that with the new Republican Senate, funding for the shuttered repository will be included in the next appropriations bill, he said this week in a briefing with reporters. Shimkus has long been a vocal advocate of Yucca Mountain as the solution to […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/16/2015 At the close of the second year of California’s cap-and-trade program, the effects of the program have been largely positive, disproving claims made by opponents of the program at its onset, according to Katherine Hsia-Kiung, lead author of a new report from the Environmental Defense Fund. In remarks this […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/16/2015 Researchers at Rice University, expanding on research conducted last year, have developed low-cost asphalt with the potential to capture carbon at natural gas wellheads. Last year’s research resulted in the development of a new material, a nanoporous solid of carbon with nitrogen or sulfur, and building on that research, […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/16/2015 Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D. – R.I.) and Joe Manchin (D – W.V.) called on the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency this week to support advancements in carbon capture and utilization. “Companies and research institutions across the country, including innovators in Rhode Island and West Virginia, are […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/16/2015 The eventual retrofit of all three of NRG Energy’s Gulf Coast coal plants with carbon capture and storage technology is a possibility, NRG President and CEO David Crane said during an investors event this week. While Crane made clear that he was not making a commitment to do so, […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/16/2015 The treatment of natural gas electricity generation with carbon capture and enhanced oil recovery under California’s cap-and-trade program is uncertain, presenting a key obstacle to the deployment of that approach, according to a report released late last week by the California Council on Science on Technology. “The current regulatory […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 1/16/2015 While only two years remain for the Obama Administration, the White House appears to be moving forward with a second nomination for the sole remaining vacant Under Secretary position at the Department of Energy that would oversee the Office of Environmental Management. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said late this […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 1/16/2015 Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), the freshman lawmaker now representing Hanford, this week was named Vice-Chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology’s Energy Subcommittee. The subcommittee covers federal R&D programs, including Department of Energy laboratories. “I am honored by this exciting opportunity to serve as Vice-Chairman of the […]

WC Monitor 1/16/2015 IN CONGRESS Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) has been appointed to the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee. She represents a district downstream from Hanford that stretches along the Columbia River from the western boundary of Benton County, which includes much of Hanford, to the Pacific Ocean. She was named to the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/16/2015 Pilot-scale testing of a new carbon capture solvent, developed by The Linde Group and chemical company BASF, is now underway at the National Carbon Capture Center in Wilsonville, Ala., through a cooperative agreement with the National Energy Technology Laboratory. The testing is being done on a nominal 1-megawatt electric […]

GHG Monitor 1/16/2015 IN THE INDUSTRY Boundary Dam, the first of its kind post-combustion coal-fired carbon capture and sequestration facility, has been named coal “Project of the Year” by Power Engineering and Renewable Energy World Magazines. The project, owned by SaskPower, is located in Saskatchewan, Canada, and is estimated to capture 90 percent of the […]

House Energy and the Environment Subcommittee Chair John Shimkus (R-Ill.) predicted that with a Republican Senate, funding for Yucca Mountain should return in the next appropriations bill, he said yesterday in a briefing with reporters. Shimkus has long been a vocal advocate of Yucca Mountain as the solution to the nation’s spent nuclear fuel problem, […]

John Kotek, as first reported by RW Monitor last week, will officially serve as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, according to a internal memo from Assistant Secretary Pete Lyons. Kotek, the former staff director for the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, fills the No. 2 […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published on Monday, Jan. 19, in observance of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. Normal publication will resume on Tuesday, Jan. 20.

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), the freshman lawmaker representing Hanford, yesterday was named Vice-Chairman of the Energy Subcommittee for the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. That subcommittee covers federal R&D programs, including Department of Energy laboratories. “I am honored by this exciting opportunity to serve as Vice-Chairman of the Energy Subcommittee, and I would […]

The nuclear industry expects legislative movement on nuclear waste policy from both chambers in the coming months, Nuclear Energy Institute President and CEO Marvin Fertel said yesterday in a Q&A with Nuclear Energy Overview, NEI’s news organization. Fertel predicted that the House would focus on funding for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s license review of the […]

Three senior senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee last week asked President Obama to consider retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Jonathan George as the next Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs. George would replace Andrew Weber, who left the position for a slot at the State Department in the […]

Newly elected Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose district covers the Hanford site, plans to urge more transparency and accountability from the Department of Energy, the lawmaker said in an op-ed published yesterday. Newhouse took over this month after the retirement of longtime Rep. Doc Hastings. “I also intend to push for transparency and accountability from […]

Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz is set to discuss DOE’s latest effort to improve project management in remarks to the National Academy of Public Administration on Jan. 15. Last month, DOE released the findings of a Contract and Project Management working group assembled by Moniz that identified as areas in need of improvement insufficient front-end […]

New Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) included nuclear waste policy as a priority the committee will discuss in the next two months during remarks last week about moving the Keystone XL Pipeline legislation out of committee. Murkowski co-authored the “Nuclear Waste Administration Act” bill with former Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) […]

The Department of Energy reportedly does not plan to contest fines levied by Idaho regulators for delays in processing the remaining liquid waste at the Idaho site. Last week, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality began penalizing DOE a total of $3,600 per day for failing to empty three tanks at the Idaho site of […]

Martin Schneider, Chief Executive Officer Martin Schneider joined ExchangeMonitor Publications in 2001, after working for several daily newspapers up and down the East Coast, including the Washington Times, Baltimore Sun and Danbury (Conn.) News-Times. He began at ExchangeMonitor as a reporter for the Radioactive Exchange, now the RadWaste Monitor. Prior to becoming CEO in 2011, […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/9/2015 The Department of Energy is making available $125 million in funding for innovative clean energy technologies, including carbon capture and storage, through the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) program, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz announced this week. “We’re going to put out $125 million for new, novel […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/9/2015 Even if carbon capture and storage technology is deployed by 2025, the United States would need to burn less than 10 percent of its known coal reserves if the world is to stay below the globally agreed upon two degree limit in global warming, according to a new study […]