Budget & Policy

The House Armed Services Committee will mark up its version of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act Wednesday, and Republicans are expected to unveil language that would limit the Obama Administration’s ability to implement the New START Treaty. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the chairman of the panel’s Strategic Forces Subcommittee, said last month that […]

The House Cleanup Caucus is scheduled to hold a briefing on the Department of Energy’s Idaho site this week. The briefing is set to include presentations from the Department of Energy and the two main cleanup contractors at the site—CH2M-WG Idaho and Idaho Treatment Group, LLC, which manages the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project. The […]

Frustrated that no federal employees lost their jobs over the Y-12 security breach last year, the House Armed Services Committee has drafted language giving the Secretary of Energy the authority to fire feds responsible for future mishaps that endanger the security of special nuclear material or classified information. The language was included in a markup […]

House lawmakers are looking for the Department of Energy to develop a detailed plan on how DOE will address tank waste at Hanford through 2025. Language calling for such a plan has been included in the House version of the Fiscal Year 2014 defense authorization bill, a full version of which was released yesterday ahead […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration would study ways to reduce costs for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project under the House Armed Services Committee’s mark released yesterday for the Fiscal Year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act. In its FY14 budget request the NNSA cut funding for MOX and announced plans to slow down construction […]

The Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board will hold its twenty-second annual meeting today at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. Chris Hanson, senior policy advisor with the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy office, will lead the keynote session, “DOE’s Strategy for Managing and Disposing of Used Fuel/HLW and Plans for Implementation.” The meeting […]

In a move sure to set off a fierce fight at today’s House Armed Services Committee markup of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act, Republicans are withholding more than $70 million in Fiscal Year 2014 funds targeted for implementing the New START Treaty. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the chairman of the panel’s Strategic Forces […]

Members of Kentucky’s Congressional delegation met yesterday Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Deputy Secretary Dan Poneman to discuss the future of the Paducah site. Sens. Mitch McConnell (R) and Rand Paul (R) and Rep. Ed Whitfield (R) met with the officials after sending a letter last month to DOE requesting a long-term plan for the […]

Acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Neile Miller is sticking around at the agency a little longer than expected. Miller, who announced last month that she was leaving the agency, will now stay until June 28, two weeks longer than she had previously planned, NNSA spokesman Josh McConaha confirmed. McConaha said Miller was “asked to […]

Department of Energy Nuclear Energy Senior Policy Advisor Chris Hanson yesterday backed a proposal in draft Senate nuclear waste legislation that would create a new federal agency headed by a single administrator to manage spent nuclear fuel. "A single administrator would be better … that way there’s a single bellybutton we can push, we being […]

Concerned about possible schedule slips on the B61 life extension program, House Republicans yesterday tied progress on the refurbishment effort to one of the Obama Administration’s signature nonproliferation program during a markup of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act. While also fending off attempts by Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee to roll […]

If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing activities are negatively impacted as a result of automatic federal budget cuts, it could have serious repercussions for the U.S. economy, NRC Commissioner Kristine Svinicki said at a U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council meeting yesterday. Last month NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane said the automatic federal spending cuts could potentially impact […]

A Livermore-based nuclear watchdog agency is suing the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration to compel the government to more promptly respond to Freedom of Information Act requests. Tri-Valley CAREs noted that the government is required to respond to information requests within 20 days, but the group said it has sometimes waited […]

House and Senate authorizers are scheduled to take further action on the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act this week, with the Senate Armed Services Committee planning to mark up its version of the bill starting Tuesday and the full House likely to take up its version of the bill mid-week. The House Armed Services […]

Here’s a look at the events we’ll be following this week: On June 11-12, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is holding its 2013 Fuel Cycle Information Exchange meeting, which will involve presentations from NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane and other Commission and industry officials. The meeting is scheduled to be held at the U.S Nuclear Regulatory […]

Provisions in the House Armed Services Committee version of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act that would hinder the Obama Administration’s ability to implement the New START Treaty or limit the President’s ability to pursue arms control talks with Russia are likely to draw a veto threat from the President, arms control experts said […]

Former Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, who retired from the Senate earlier this year, suggested yesterday that the National Nuclear Security Administration needs more autonomy to better do its job, and he argued that freedom could come by shifting NNSA under the Pentagon. Before he left the Senate, Kyl helped author legislation that created a 12-member […]

Among potential amendments to the House’s version of the Fiscal Year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act, Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) is looking to add a provision to expand the mission of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. In addition to defense transuranic waste, the proposed amendment states it would open the repository to "the transportation and […]

A host of nuclear weapons-related provisions included in the House version of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act are drawing opposition from the Obama Administration, which yesterday threatened to veto the bill if it included language limiting implementation of the New START Treaty or tying the hands of the president on future nuclear reductions. […]

The Senate Energy and Public Works committee yesterday released Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Allison Macfarlane’s answers to the more than 125 questions that Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) posed as part of her renomination process. Many of the questions concerned safety requirements put in place post-Fukushima, the commission’s recent decision regarding filtered vents, and the status […]

The House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee will mark up its version of the Fiscal Year 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Act next week, and a tight allocation for the subcommittee could mean stiff cuts for DOE and National Nuclear Security Administration. “What we anticipate there is that it will be dramatically bad for the […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee authorized $583 million for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility as part of its version of the Fiscal Year 2014 Defense Authorization Act, increasing the authorized funding for the project by $80 million in an effort to keep the program afloat while a review of the […]

House lawmakers Friday approved the Fiscal Year 2014 National Defense Authorization bill, which included a provision that would open the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant to non-defense-related transuranic waste. The language was in an amendment offered by Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.), which was incorporated into the bill late Thursday. In addition to defense transuranic waste, the […]

With the deadline for a gubernatorial deadline passing yesterday, Waste Control Specialists can plan for their operational year to shift to begin Sept. 1, with their import capacity expanding at that time to 275,000 curies per year. The Texas legislature reached concurrence in late May on a modified funding bill that was amended at the […]

House appropriators are scheduled to hold a subcommittee markup hearing today on the Fiscal Year 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, which funds the Department of Energy’s cleanup program and the National Nuclear Security Administration, among other programs. The hearing is scheduled to be held in Room 2362-B in the Rayburn House Office Building beginning […]

The House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee also is set to provide $656.3 million for DOE’s Nuclear Energy program, with $5 million of that to “be made available to affected units of local government … to support the Yucca Mountain high-level waste geological repository,” according to a draft version of the FY 2014 Energy and Water […]

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Financial and Contracting Oversight has pushed back by one week a planned hearing on the Department of Energy’s major cleanup contracts. The hearing is now scheduled to be held June 27 beginning at 10:30 a.m. The panel has asked DOE and its set of major cleanup […]

House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) is taking issue with a provision that would open the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant to non-defense transuranic waste that was included in legislation that passed the House Friday. Waxman believes the provision should have been taken up by Energy and Commerce. “If this effort to […]

The House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee yesterday cleared the Fiscal Year 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Act, which cuts nearly $200 million from the Obama Administration’s FY 2014 request for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program. But Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), the chairman of the subcommittee, said he believes the bill provides adequate […]

President Obama is expected to outline his vision for future nuclear reductions in a speech today on the East side of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, suggesting that the United States could reduce the size of its deployed nuclear arsenal by up to one-third, or to as low as 1,000 warheads. Obama’s speech, delivered at […]