Budget & Policy

A Senate panel yesterday voted to authorize a $145 million increase for continued construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act. The Department of Energy’s FY’15 budget requested $221 million to put the MOX facility in “cold standby”, but the Senate Armed Services Emerging Threats and […]

Former Carnegie Mellon President Jared Cohon and former Deputy Energy Secretary T.J. Glauthier will chair a nine-member Congressionally mandated Commission to Review the Effectiveness of the National Energy Laboratories, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said yesterday as he announced the members of the panel. Moniz selected the members of the panel from a list of 27 […]

As the full House prepares to consider the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) is submitting a provision that would prohibit discussing options that would could bring additional plutonium to Washington. The House legislation asks for a study to validate the Department of Energy’s plutonium disposition alternatives assessment, which was […]

Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) is looking to obtain a small boost in cleanup funding in the House version of the FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act. Hastings has put forth an amendment that would increase authorized defense environmental cleanup funding in the bill by $20 million. The increase would be offset by an equal cut […]

Sen Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) led a chorus of state stakeholders criticizing the lack of state and local input into the decisions behind a utility’s decommissioning plan for commercial reactors during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on nuclear reactor decommissioning held yesterday. Sanders, whose home state of Vermont went through negotiations with Entergy […]

The legislation that created the National Nuclear Security Administration as a semi-autonomous agency within the Department of Energy has been “counter-productive” as it has been implemented, the Congressional Advisory Panel on the Governance of the Nuclear Security Enterprise said in an interim report made public this week. The panel’s broad conclusions have been known for some […]

The date that the Nuclear Waste Fund fee will be reduced to zero has been pushed back to Friday. The original date for the court ordered reduction in the fee was supposed to occur this Thursday, according to a memo circulated by the Department of Energy to fee payers late last week, but a new […]

North America’s Building Trades Unions was “dismayed and frustrated” by the $120 million in MOX construction funding stripped last week by the House Armed Services Committee during markup of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, the group’s president said yesterday in a letter to Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.). “Once again, representatives of the party […]

The Senate yesterday confirmed Steven Croley as the Department of Energy’s new General Counsel. Croley previously served in various roles at the Office of the White House Counsel and the Domestic Policy Council, according to a DOE release. “Dr. Croley brings to the Department leadership team both extensive experience representing the interests of the United […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is set today to consider the White House’s choice of Monica Regalbuto to serve as the next Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management. Regalbuto, who currently is an official in the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, is likely to face questions related to Hanford and the […]

Dennis Deziel has been named the new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program Planning and Budget in the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, DOE cleanup chief David Huizenga said in a message to employees yesterday. Deziel replaces Terry Tyborowski, who moved last month to serve as Deputy Director for Budget Analysis in the DOE […]

The latest round of House Republican outrage concerning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s handling of the Yucca Mountain licensing review occurred yesterday during a House Energy and Power Subcommittee hearing as lawmakers chastised the Commission for failing to request funds to complete the review as well as failing to provide information on the estimated cost to […]

Republicans turned away an amendment to the House Armed Services Committee version of the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act that would’ve authorized an increase in nuclear weapons dismantlement work. The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), would’ve boosted authorize funding for NNSA dismantlement work by $20 million, but it was opposed by […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is set to hold a hearing next week to consider the nomination of Monica Regalbuto to serve as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management. The hearing is scheduled to be held May 13 beginning at 10 a.m. Regalbuto currently holds the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary of […]

All five members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are set to appear before the House Energy and Power subcommittee this morning to discuss the NRC Fiscal Year 2015 budget request and other policy issues. The NRC’s fiscal year 2015 budget request is $1,060 million, to support 3,882 employees resulting in a $3.6 million increase and […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is closing a decade-old recommendation on oversight of complex, high-hazard nuclear operations, but it says it will continue to keep tabs on the Department’s progress in strengthening federal safety assurance. The recommendation, issued May 21, 2004, helped revitalize the implementation of Integrated Safety Management across the Department. The Board […]

The House version of the Fiscal Year 2015 defense authorization bill would authorize funding for a new federal contribution to the Uranium Enrichment D&D fund, though the bill does not have language that would reauthorize the fund itself. Full details of the bill were released yesterday in advance of a planned markup before the full […]

The House Armed Services Committee is supporting continued construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in the chairman’s mark of the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, despite the Department of Energy’s plans to suspend work on the project. In its FY’15 budget request, the National Nuclear Security Administration said it would put […]

The Department of Energy has notified Congress of plans for transferring $56.65 million to the American Centrifuge Project to fund a new contract through this fiscal year and into next, WC Monitor has learned. The funding will allow work to continue monitoring deployment of the technology under a new Oak Ridge National Laboratory subcontract to […]

South Carolina announced Friday it would drop its lawsuit against the Department of Energy after DOE last week said it would continue construction work on the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility through the end of the fiscal year, according to reports. South Carolina filed suit against DOE in March soon after the Department announced plans […]

A new report from the Government Accountability Office said it’s unlikely that the National Nuclear Security Administration won’t meet its goals to dismantle all nuclear weapons retired prior to Fiscal Year 2009 by FY 2022, but it suggests slowing down the dismantlement work might help address a problematic gap in dismantlement work that is looming […]

The House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee cleared its portion of the Fiscal Year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act in a tidy 8 minutes and 45 seconds yesterday, but not without some grumbling from several Democrats on the panel. Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) was the lone “no” vote against the markup as he questioned why […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration this week backed off a plan to stop construction on the MOX project in Fiscal Year 2014, but Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) continued to press NNSA officials to abandon a plan to put the project in cold standby in FY 2015. “Putting this in cold standby should be an affront […]

The United States should scale back its ambitions to restart arms control negotiations with Russia, House Republicans told a pair of State Department officials yesterday at a joint hearing of House Foreign Affairs Committee panels, citing tensions over Ukraine and Moscow’s alleged violation of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty. “The United States should not continue […]

House lawmakers are looking to lower the maximum number of employees the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board can have by 20 percent. A provision in the House version of the FY 2015 defense authorization bill, set to be marked up today by the House Armed Forces Strategic Forces Subcommittee, would limit the number of full-time […]

Republicans on the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee are objecting to Administration plans to delay the refurbishment of the cruise missile warhead, and they are moving to authorize additional funding to accelerate the program in Fiscal Year 2015. The subcommittee released its portion of the FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act yesterday, and while the […]

Though it first planned to suspend the project starting in March, after receiving strong opposition from lawmakers and the state of South Carolina the Department of Energy yesterday committed to continuing construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility through the end of Fiscal Year 2014. DOE said in its FY 2015 budget request last […]

Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) will offer their views on “The ICBM and Bomber Fleet in U.S. Nuclear Deterrent Futures” at 8 a.m. Tuesday as part of the Peter Huessy Congressional Breakfast Series. The event is at the Reserve Officers Association at 1 Constitution Ave. NE, Washington, D.C. Arms Control will be […]

Meanwhile, during his appearance in Tennessee Friday, Moniz was asked about the administration’s plans for preserving the centrifuge technology for national security in taking over the American Centrifuge Project. There have been concerns, based on the proposal submitted in USEC’s bankruptcy proceedings, that the centrifuge manufacturing program based in Oak Ridge would come to a […]

Three key players in the future modernization of the Y-12 National Security Complex—Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason—gathered Friday at the University of Tennessee, where Moniz was delivering a lecture on energy and environment. But, in a press conference preceding the Moniz lecture, the three […]