Budget & Policy

With the Obama Administration set to release its Fiscal Year 2015 budget request this week, Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) reintroduced legislation late last week that would cut $100 billion in nuclear weapons spending over the next decade. Markey first introduced the “Smarter Approach to Nuclear Expenditures (SANE) Act” when he was […]

The biggest event of the week will come Tuesday when the Obama Administration releases top-line budget numbers about its Fiscal Year 2015 budget request to Congress. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is expected to brief the media on DOE’s request at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, and the event will be streamed live at www.energy.gov/live; This year’s Waste […]

The Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year 2015 budget request includes $8.3 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program, and plans to modernize the nation’s nuclear deterrent are beginning to win over one of the staunchest critics of nuclear funding lapses. Speaking at a Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing yesterday, Sen. Jeff Sessions […]

The Obama Administration is expected to release details of its Fiscal Year 2015 budget request early this week after issuing top line numbers last week. The budget details could be released as soon as today or tomorrow, providing more insight into the Administration’s budget plans for the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration and […]

In the face of questions from lawmakers, Department of Energy officials acknowledged yesterday that DOE has more work to do to ensure a strong safety culture across the complex. The Senate Financial and Contracting Oversight Subcommittee held a hearing to examine concerns over whether workers at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant are at risk of […]

The South Carolina Attorney General is considering taking legal action in response to the Administration’s plans to put the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility into “cold standby” and analyze alternatives to the program. “The Attorney General’s office is examining all possible avenues for legal action should the need for action arise,” South Carolina AG spokesman […]

March 26 is shaping up to be a busy day on Capitol Hill for the National Nuclear Security Administration. While the co-chairmen of the NNSA governance panel appear before the House Armed Services Committee, top leaders from the agency will testify before the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee. The Senate hearing will include testimony […]

The Obama Administration is requesting $365.1 million in Fiscal Year 2015 for the Department of Defense’s Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction account, a $135.4 million reduction from FY 2014 funding levels that likely reflects a slow-down in nuclear security work in Russia. Funding for Nunn-Lugar work has remained relatively steady in recent years, with $446.2 million […]

The Senate is poised to begin debate this week on its version of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act. As early as today, the chamber could vote on a cloture motion that would allow it to take up the bill, and Senate leaders have suggested it could take this week, and perhaps until Thanksgiving, […]

The Senate late last week confirmed Kenneth Mossman to serve on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. Mossman most recently served as a professor of health physics at Arizona State University and an Administrative Judge for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board. Mossman is replacing Jack Mansfield, whose term officially expired in […]

Here’s a look at some of the events we’ll be following this week: On Nov. 18-19, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board is scheduled to hold a two-day technical workshop in Washington on the “Impacts of Dry-Storage Canister Designs on Future Handling, Storage, Transportation and Geologic Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel in the United States.” […]

As the Senate moved to take up its version of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act, the Obama Administration voiced opposition to several provisions in the bill, including language that would require the Pentagon and National Nuclear Security Administration to develop cost estimates for four separate life extension program options as part of a […]

A pair of Republicans are planning to offer an amendment to the Senate’s version of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act aimed at GOP concerns about President Obama’s arms control aspirations. The Senate formally began debate on the bill yesterday with language barring the transfer of Guantanomo Bay detainees occupying much of the floor […]

Hundreds of amendments to the Senate version of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act have been filed, but an agreement on which amendments will be taken up hasn’t been reached and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) moved yesterday to cut off debate on the bill. Reid last night filed a motion for cloture […]

The government shutdown in October cost the Nuclear Regulatory Commission $10 million in lost productivity, said NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane in a speech earlier this week at the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations CEO Conference in Atlanta, Ga. “Our preliminary assessment indicates that the shutdown cost the agency over $10 million in productivity,” she said. “It […]

The Nuclear Waste Administration Act bill appears to be moving forward to the mark up stage as Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D.-Ore) has said he wants to move to mark up the bill in December. Previously, Wyden had said during a committee hearing on Nov. 21 that he wanted to […]

Weapons Complex Monitor is set to publish its annual list of Winners and Losers in its Dec. 20 issue, highlighting the good and the bad from 2013. Send your nominations or make your case to nartker@exchangemonitor.com.  

The Department of Energy’s Inspector General yesterday released the latest version of its annual report on management challenges facing DOE, focusing in Fiscal Year 2014 on many of the same issues identified in last year’s report but noting steps toward improvement. “In the past year, the Department has taken a number of actions to address […]

Lawmakers supporting the uranium mining industry are planning to send a letter to the Department of Energy tomorrow expressing concern about the impacts of the Department’s most recent Excess Uranium Inventory Management Plan, WC Monitor has learned. DOE released the plan publicly last summer, and it found that the Department’s increases in uranium sales and […]

Rep. Ed Whitfield (R- Ky.) and Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) sent a letter to Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair Allison Macfarlane last week highlighting the main questions they would like answered at the Energy and Power Subcommittee and Environment and the Economy Subcommittee’s joint hearing on NRC oversight scheduled for next week. The meeting will address […]

NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane responded last week that the NRC will continue to engage with Congressional oversight committees in a transparent and constructive manner in regards to its new sensitive document policy. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) had voiced concerns regarding the NRC’s new rule that would limit the release […]

Weapons Complex Monitor is set to publish its annual list of Winners and Losers in its Dec. 20 issue, highlighting the good and the bad from 2013. Send your nominations or make your case to nartker@exchangemonitor.com.

Here’s a look at some of the events we’ll be following this week: The Energy Facilities Contractors Group is holding its semi-annual meeting Tuesday and Wednesday at the Department of Energy’s Forrestal Bulding. Speakers include Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), National Nuclear Security Administration Associate Principal Deputy Administrator Michael Lempke, Office of Environmental Management Principal Deputy […]

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) yesterday blocked an attempt by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to confirm a slate of pending Obama Administration nominees, including Under Secretary of Energy for Management and Performance Elizabeth Robinson and National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz, among others. According to Congressional staff,  Reid attempted twice yesterday to confirm […]

House and Senate leaders last night agreed to a broad deal that breaks a logjam on negotiations for the Fiscal Year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act, and a House provision that would have allowed non-defense transuranic waste to be sent to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant is not in the final bill, WC Monitor has […]

The United States should not further reduce the size of its nuclear arsenal, according to a new report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments that suggests continuing rounds of nuclear cuts could endanger strategic stability and the U.S. nuclear umbrella while wearing away the nation’s ability to deter nuclear use by hostile regional […]

House and Senate appropriators are aiming to complete an omnibus appropriations bill by mid-January after Congressional leaders reached an agreement last night on a budget deal that averts another government shutdown next month. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) unveiled the budget deal yesterday, outlining a plan that would roll back sequester […]

The agreement struck between House and Senate leaders this week on the Fiscal Year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act criticizes the delays and cost overruns at the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project, according to a report accompanying the bill released yesterday. “We believe the rising costs associated with the program, canceled facilities, missed deadlines, […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s modular plutonium strategy planned for Los Alamos National Laboratory received the backing of House and Senate lawmakers in the negotiated version of the Fiscal Year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act. House and Senate leaders last night released details about the expansive legislation, and the bill largely mirrors a provision in […]

The Senate’s Nuclear Waste Administration Act, originally planned for markup before the holiday break, will be pushed to 2014 due to scheduling conflicts. “Sen. Wyden had aimed for sometime before the end of the year,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources spokesman Keith Chu said. “Obviously, with the schedule in the next two weeks, it’s going […]