Budget & Policy

Monday was former Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s last day at the Department of Energy, and Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman is currently serving as acting Secretary of Energy. In a message to DOE employees, DOE acting Chief of Staff Jeff Navin said called Chu’s departure “the end of an historic and successful tenure as Secretary […]

Greeting acting National Nuclear Security Administration chief Neile Miller with foreboding phrases like "I don’t envy you" and "welcome to the grist mill," Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) peppered a panel of senior NNSA officials with a host of tough questions and harsh criticisms yesterday, directing her ire at the […]

Former Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine will serve as the co-chair of the Congressionally mandated panel on the governance of the National Nuclear Security Administration alongside former Strategic Command chief Richard Mies. Augustine was selected by Democratic lawmakers to his spot as the co-chair, with Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and House […]

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) is criticizing delays in submission of a Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management reprogramming request, which he said could alleviate some of sequestration’s impacts to Savannah River Site workers. Currently about 2,500 site workers are on part-time furloughs, and site officials say about 900 will be furloughed full time in […]

The possibility that the National Nuclear Security Administration could ignore the Government Accountability’s recommendation to reopen the Y-12/Pantex procurement is starting to raise some eyebrows among industry officials and those in Congress. In the wake of the GAO’s decision to uphold protests of the $22.8 billion Y-12/Pantex contract by teams led by incumbent Babcock & […]

Petitioners have filed an initial brief this week in a recently reopened case challenging the Department of Energy’s continued collection of the Nuclear Waste Fee from utilities following the shutdown of Yucca Mountain. The court reopened the challenge by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and the Nuclear Energy Institute earlier this year after […]

Strategic Command chief Gen. Robert Kehler and acting National Nuclear Security Administration head Neile Miller will testify before the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee next week along with a handful of other Administration officials. Madelyn Creedon, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management may soon be able to submit a long-planned reprogramming request to Congress after having this week resolved an issue concerning funds for cleanup activities at the Los Alamos National Laboratory with the White House Office of Management and Budget, WC Monitor has learned, though other issues still […]

  The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee yesterday launched a webpage to streamline stakeholder feedback on the nuclear waste legislation discussion draft, released last week. Stakeholders have until May 24 to submit comments. The senators provided a sheet of larger questions they hope to receive feedback on, and the website debuted yesterday also provides […]

  A draft bill rolled out by a bipartisan group of four senators last week to address future spent fuel management “suffers from a glaring omission” by not addressing how waste is currently stored at reactor sites, the Union of Concerned Scientists wrote in an op-ed in The Hill yesterday. Though spent nuclear fuel will […]

it’s going to be a busy week on Capitol Hill for the National Nuclear Security Administration next week. In addition to Thursday’s House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing, NNSA or national laboratory officials will appear before the Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee Tuesday and Wednesday. Los Alamos Director Charlie McMillan, Sandia Director Paul […]

The Department of Energy late Friday evening submitted its long-anticipated request to reprogram funds among cleanup projects to Capitol Hill for approval. The request is necessary to address budgetary issues at a number of sites resulting from the Continuing Resolution and sequestration and to help prevent further layoffs and other workforce impacts. Overall, the requests […]

Lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee continued to push back against attempts at decreasing oversight of the National Nuclear Security Administration in the wake of last summer’s Y-12 National Security Complex security breach, suggesting at a hearing yesterday that more, and not less, oversight is necessary for the weapons complex. […]

New Mexico Rep. Ben Lujan (D) took advantage of a hearing the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee held yesterday on last summer’s security breach at Y-12 to press senior Department of Energy officials on the need for increased cleanup funding for sites in his state. Lujan called on DOE to ensure that […]

A comprehensive and long-term plan to treat waste that fits with limited federal resources needs to be developed, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) told energy secretary nominee Ernest Moniz. She met with him Wednesday in what she said was a productive meeting to discuss energy issues. “First and foremost, we discussed the most pressing environmental cleanup […]

The impacts of prolonged sequestration funding cuts at the Savannah River Site could include a curtailment of missions at the H-Canyon facility, a halt of waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and a shutdown of other projects, according to a presentation given Thursday by the Department of Energy Savannah River Site Manager Dave […]

A group of House lawmakers reintroduced legislation late last week to establish a Manhattan Project National Park. The bill would direct that the park be established within one year, and consists of facilities at Hanford, Oak Ridge and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. “The Manhattan Project is a significant chapter in America’s history. The establishment […]

A recommendation by the Department of Energy’s Inspector General to consider shuttering some of DOE’s national laboratories has not gained a lot of traction, IG Gregory Friedman told the House Science, Space and Technology Oversight Subcommittee late last week. In 2011, the IG said suggested a “BRAC-style” commission should be formed to examine consolidating parts […]

Here’s look at some of the events we’ll be keeping an eye on this week  Perma-Fix Environmental Services is set to announce its 2012 year-end earnings today at 11 a.m. The call will be available at (877)-407-0778 for U.S. callers or (201)-689-8565 for international callers, according to a company notice. USEC Inc. will broadcast its […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing in early April to consider the Obama Administration’s nomination of Ernest Moniz as the next Secretary of Energy. The hearing is set to be held on April 9 beginning at 10 a.m. Moniz is currently a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute […]

Senior National Security Staff official Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall has been named the White House Coordinator for Defense Policy, Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Arms Control, a new position that encompasses the duties of former WMD czar Gary Samore. While Sherwood-Randall’s duties will include WMD and arms control, the job will also be broadened to include […]

Almost two years after the last Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management stepped down from the position, the Department of Energy needs to move forward with nominating a replacement, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said yesterday. At a House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee hearing, Simpson told current DOE cleanup chief David Huizenga, “It would […]

Republicans on the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee sparred with the co-founder of the Global Zero nuclear abolition movement during a hearing yesterday on nuclear deterrence requirements that evolved into a debate over potential nuclear reductions. Bruce Blair, the co-founder of Global Zero and the president of the World Security Institute, was one of […]

The Obama Administration could save $50 billion over the next 10 years by more efficiently fielding nuclear warheads under the New START Treaty and slowing down plans to build new delivery vehicles and warheads, including a planned refurbishment of the B61 nuclear bomb, according to a new analysis from the Arms Control Association. The B61 […]

The Senate voted 73-26 yesterday to approve a new stop-gap measure to fund the federal government for the remainder of this fiscal year. Under the new Continuing Resolution, which would run until Oct. 1, DOE’s cleanup efforts will continue to be funded at their FY 2012 appropriated levels minus the impacts of sequestration. The Senate […]

The new baseline for the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility could increase the cost of the project by $2.8 billion and push back the startup of operations three years, an official from the Government Accountability Office said yesterday at a House Appropriations Energy and Water Development subcommittee hearing. In prepared testimony GAO Natural Resources and […]

A recent infusion of $44.4 million from the Department of Energy to a program supporting USEC’s American Centrifuge Project came with little input from Congress. The Department called Congressional appropriators last Friday to notify them of the Administrative action being done that day, which came in the days after the House and Senate completed separate […]

The Y-12 National Security Complex won’t need to resort to furloughs to deal with the impact of sequestration, a site spokesman said in a statement. Site officials had braced employees for the possibility of furloughs to deal with the across-the-board funding cuts, but B&W Y-12 spokesman Ellen Boatner said Y-12 will weather the sequestration storm […]

A Department of Energy Inspector General report released Friday found that Cooperative Research and Development Agreements under the National Nuclear Security Administration’s national labs have been executed well, but noted several areas for improvement. “We found that NNSA laboratories were managing the use of selected CRADA activities that we tested in an effective manner,” the […]

As the Department of Energy works to prepare a reprogramming request to Congress to shift funds among cleanup sites in an effort to mitigate the impacts of sequestration, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) warned the Department yesterday against moving money away from Hanford. “Recognizing the legal cleanup commitments that have been made by the Department of […]