Budget & Policy

House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) yesterday defended his panel’s continued push for the currently shuttered Yucca Mountain geological waste repository in the Fiscal Year 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. The bill, which was reported out of subcommittee yesterday, would provide $25 million to sustain the Yucca Mountain project, as […]

New Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz has selected Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, to serve as his Chief of Staff, effective June 24. Knobloch has headed UCS since December 2003, and before then served as the group’s executive director for four years. Knobloch also served as UCS’ legislative director for arms […]

A story in Tuesday’s Morning Briefing on a decision by the Small Business Administration in a size-standard protest of the recent Maywood contract award incorrectly listed the makeup of one of the bidding teams. Maywood Closure Company is led by ARS International and Safety and Ecology Holdings Corporation under an SBA approved mentor-protégé joint venture […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration announced several management changes last week, moving Ken Sheely to a new leadership position in the agency’s Office of Infrastructure and Operations and shifting security official Frank Lowery to the Office of Management and Budget. Sheely will serve as the Program Executive Officer for the Office of Infrastructure and Operations […]

Senate appropriators are looking to complete work on their version of the Fiscal Year 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Act this week. The Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee is scheduled to hold a markup of the bill June 25 at 10:00 a.m. in Room SD-192 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington. The […]

The Senate Armed Services Committee has signed off on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plans to pursue a modular building strategy at Los Alamos National Laboratory to meet the nation’s plutonium needs. Los Alamos and NNSA officials conceived the plan after the Obama Administration deferred work on the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility, which […]

Late last night, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works reported out the renomination of Allison Macfarlane to be chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Macfarlane’s vote, recorded by voice late in the evening, was unanimous among the three present committee members, a Senate aide said yesterday. The vote comes just days before Macfarlane’s […]

In clearing its version of the Fiscal Year 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Act yesterday, the Senate Energy and Water Development Subcommittee only released top line numbers for the NNSA and other Department of Energy programs. Overall, the subcommittee matched the Administration’s $7.868 billion request for the NNSA’s weapons program and boosted funding for the […]

Concerned about the rising costs of the B61 life extension program and a 2019 deadline to complete a First Production Unit on the bomb, the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee is calling on the National Nuclear Security Administration to “reassess” options on the expensive refurbishment effort while slashing funding for the program. The Obama […]

House appropriators took the Department of Energy to task for issues experienced on several major cleanup contracts in the report accompanying the Fiscal Year 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations bill, released yesterday ahead of today’s scheduled full Appropriations Committee markup. Among the projects that came in for criticism in the report is the Savannah River […]

The Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee recommended funding a pilot nuclear waste storage facility—proposed by the Obama Administration in January—in the Fiscal Year 2014 energy and water appropriations bill it approved yesterday. “The bill also reintroduces a provision that authorizes DOE to begin a consent-based process for developing one or more consolidated interim waste […]

Lawmakers on the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee last week signed off on a $193 million cut to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program while signaling that they planned to preserve work on the agency’s top priority weapons refurbishment work. As the actual bill and report language were released in advance of today’s […]

House Appropriators yesterday criticized the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plans to slow down construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility and study alternatives for plutonium disposition in its version of the FY 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Act. The NNSA cut funding for plant construction in its Fiscal Year 2014 budget to $320 million, […]

On Friday, acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Neile Miller will leave the agency as expected, but with Miller’s departure only days away, the Obama Administration has remained mum on who will helm in the agency in her absence. NW&M Monitor has previously reported that former DOE Intelligence and Counterintelligence Director Bruce Held, who was […]

Long-time Democratic Congressman Ed Markey won a seat in the U.S. Senate last night in a special election held after John Kerry left the post to serve as Secretary of State. Markey, an outspoken opponent of nuclear power, led going into the final stretch of the race against Republican Gabriel Gomez, and about an hour […]

The full House Appropriations Committee voted 28-21 yesterday to approve the Fiscal Year 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Act, which provides funding for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration. During yesterday’s markup, only one amendment was proposed tied to DOE’s cleanup efforts—a measure put forth by Rep. […]

Associate Deputy Energy Secretary Bruce Held is taking over as the acting head of the National Nuclear Security Administration, as expected. But not for another week. Held will begin serving as the agency’s acting leader when he returns from leave July 8, and with former acting Adminstrator Neile Miller having departed the agency Friday, NNSA […]

Senate appropriators have raised questions about the National Nuclear Security Administration’s decision to shift protective force management at the Y-12 National Security Complex under management and operating contractor B&W Y-12, suggesting that the new approach is not the most cost effective, or efficient way, to provide security across the weapons complex. In the report accompanying […]

The balance of a Department of Energy research, development and deployment program supporting USEC’s American Centrifuge could be funded by a DOE reprogramming, USEC CEO John Welch said late last week. The RD&D program is set to wrap up at the end of 2013, but current funding runs out at the end of the fiscal […]

A Department of Energy initiative to standardize the reporting of indirect costs across the weapons complex has generated data that is too broad, and might not be useful for improving the management of the weapons complex, a recently released Government Accountability Office report said. The report released Friday, “Laboratories’ Indirect Cost Management Has Improved, but […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not be published on Thursday, in observance of the Fourth of July holiday. Please note, ExchangeMonitor’s offices will be closed Thursday and Friday. Additionally, the regular weekly issues of Weapons Complex Monitor, Nuclear Weapons & Materials Monitor and RadWaste Monitor will be published on Wednesday, July 3. 

Mary Louise Wagner, a top aide to Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and longtime staffer on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is set to leave that post to advise Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on nuclear waste issues, aides confirmed. Wagner’s last day working for the Arms Committee will be July 12. Moniz is familiar with nuclear […]

The House is expected to begin consideration of the FY 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Act this week, kicking off an effort from House Republicans to complete work on several funding bills during July. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said in a memo Friday that the House would consider the FY 2014 Energy and […]

The Obama Administration late yesterday issued a veto threat against the House version of the Fiscal Year 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Act. Among the White House’s concerns is the topline funding level House appropriators used to craft the bill, which is significantly lower than that used by Senate appropriators. Enacting a bill based on […]

Bruce Held, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s new acting administrator, formally began work in his new position yesterday. Held took over for Neile Miller, the NNSA’s previous acting administrator, but NNSA Associate Principal Deputy Administrator Michael Lempke managed the agency last week while Held was on leave. Held, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, served […]

Morning Briefing incorrectly reported the dates of two events this week. A discussion about the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace will take place at 2 p.m. today, while an event about the Proliferation Security Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies will take place at 3 […]

Funding for the Department of Energy’s cleanup program was the subject of two amendments offered yesterday during debate on the House floor over the Fiscal Year 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Act. Longtime cleanup supporter Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) was successful in amending the bill to add another $22.5 million in defense environmental cleanup funds, […]

House Republicans yesterday fended off a handful of amendments to the Fiscal Year 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Act that would have reduced funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program, including an amendment drafted by Reps. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.) that would have cut $23.7 million from the B61 refurbishment […]

The House passed the Fiscal Year 2014 Energy and Water Appropriations Act by a vote of 227-198 late last night, turning back a handful of amendments aimed at cutting funds from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program but adopting language that would prevent money from being spent on future nuclear reductions that the Senate […]

The Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee will hold a hearing next week on recent revisions to the nation’s nuclear employment strategy, but it will be closed to the public. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs Madelyn Creedon and Strategic Command chief Gen. Robert Kehler will testify during the July 17 hearing in […]