Budget & Policy

Former South Carolina lawmaker John Spratt (D) and former Deputy Energy Secretary T.J. Glauthier were appointed yesterday to the Congressionally mandated National Nuclear Security Administration governance panel by Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee. Spratt represented South Carolina from 1983 to 2011, serving as the chairman of the […]

With Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility set to run out of funding next month, the Department of Energy says it will need to reprogram $138 million to compensate for higher overhead rates that are being charged to the facility. In a reprogramming request sent to House and Senate authorizers and appropriators last week, […]

  Legislation in Texas’ Senate amended this week to expand annual imported curie capacity at Waste Control Specialists’ disposal site to 300,000 came under fire from other senators at a Natural Resources Committee meeting yesterday.  Sen. Robert Duncan (R) questioned the proposed legislation’s requirement that Class A radioactive wastes from in-compact states Texas and Vermont […]

Revamped Department of Energy nuclear export policies that have generated criticism from the nuclear energy industry are now drawing attention from the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The committee wrote to Energy Secretary Steven Chu yesterday, informing him that it was “strengthening” its oversight of the nuclear export policies. DOE released new draft changes to […]

Former Ohio lawmaker David Hobson (R) and retired Lockheed Martin CEO Norm Augustine have been selected to serve on the Congressionally mandated National Nuclear Security Administration governance panel by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, NW&M Monitor has learned. The pair are certainly familiar with the weapons complex, with […]

President Obama’s push for a world free of nuclear weapons is harming the confidence that its allies have in the United States’ extended nuclear deterrent, four conservative nuclear weapons experts said in a March 29 Washington Post op-ed. Douglas Feith, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in the Bush Administration, Center for Security Policy […]

This year’s set of House Cleanup Caucus briefings on the Department of Energy’s cleanup program will get underway April 25, with a presentation from DOE cleanup chief David Huizenga. The briefing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. in Room 122 of the Cannon House Office Building in Washington. Details of the other planned briefings, which are […]

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is again putting off a decision to implement a salary reduction/closure day policy to deal with the impact of a large budget shortfall, and the laboratory will wait until June before implementing any budget-cutting measures, lab Director Parney Albright said in a recent message to employees. Albright said the lab is […]

In an effort to shift debate on nuclear policy away from stockpile sizes and reductions with Russia, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is suggesting that the United States instead focus on a different sort of reduction: to the circumstances that could lead the U.S. to use nuclear weapons. A new report authored by Carnegie […]

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is making it clear the Department of Energy’s cleanup efforts will be a major topic of discussion when the White House’s nominee for the next Secretary of Energy—MIT physicist Ernest Moniz—comes before his committee next week. “The next Secretary of Energy – Dr. Moniz – needs […]

The amount of carry over funding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has available for work towards licensing the Yucca Mountain repository has increased to $13.6 million, up from previous estimates of $10 million. The NRC reported the new figure Friday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which is deciding a case that […]

Here’s a look at some of the key events we’ll be covering this week: On April 8-9, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is scheduled to hold its 2013 International Nuclear Policy Conference at the Ronald Reagan Building International Trade Center in Washington. Speakers are set to include Rose Gottemoeller, Acting Under Secretary of State […]

With the clock running down before the across-the-board funding cuts known as sequestration are set to go into effect at the end of this week, officials with the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management provided a glimpse yesterday of the potential impacts on DOE’s cleanup efforts. The sequestration process, which is set to go […]

With the clock running down before the across-the-board funding cuts known as sequestration are set to go into effect at the end of this week, officials with the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management provided a glimpse yesterday of the potential impacts on DOE’s cleanup efforts. The sequestration process, which is set to go […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration is overhauling contractor assurance systems across the weapons complex in the wake of the Y-12 National Security Complex security breach last summer, according to a Department of Energy Inspector General report released Friday that is highly critical of the agency’s oversight practices. The IG report outlined a host of deficiencies […]

A Congressionally panel that will be formed to take a look at governance options for the National Nuclear Security Administration is facing an uncertain start due to complications with the Continuing Resolution that is currently funding the government, Congressional staffers said Friday at the Nuclear Deterrence Summit. Because the panel would be funded by $3 […]

It’s shaping up to be a busy week on Capitol Hill for the National Nuclear Security Administration. Led by acting NNSA Administrator Neile Miller and nonproliferation chief Anne Harrington, senior agency officials will testify before the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee at 1 p.m. Tuesday on the agency’s nonproliferation and nuclear reactors program. Miller […]

All five Nuclear Regulatory Commissioners will appear at a joint House subcommittee meeting this week. The House’s Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy and the Subcommittee on Energy and Power scheduled the joint hearing for Thursday, Feb. 28, at 9:30 a.m. to discuss policy and governance challenges. NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane will testify along with […]

With the clock running down before the across-the-board funding cuts known as sequestration are set to go into effect at the end of this week, officials with the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management provided a glimpse yesterday of the potential impacts on DOE’s cleanup efforts. The sequestration process, which is set to go […]

Texas state Sen. Kel Seliger (R) yesterday filed legislation that would seek to expand the amount of radioactive material from outside the Texas and Vermont Compact that Waste Control Specialists could dispose of 220,000 curies annually. That was the curie capacity that the Texas legislature set out for WCS for its first year of operations—ending […]

The Government Accountability Office earlier this month launched its investigation into the Department of Energy’s support for USEC in response to a request last June by Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Michael Burgess (R-Texas). The GAO is still in the planning phase of the effort and is determining the scope and schedule moving forward, but […]

Legislation seeking to reform the process for entering into civil nuclear cooperation agreements with foreign countries is likely to be taken up once again by this Congress, according to a staffer for a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee. A bill that cleared the Foreign Affairs Committee in 2011 would have required countries to either forswear the […]

Mike Nartker, the longtime reporter and editor for Weapons Complex Monitor, has been named Editor-in Chief for ExchangeMonitor Publications. In his new role, Nartker will oversee the full suite of ExchangeMonitor’s daily and weekly publications, including Weapons Complex Monitor, Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, Nuclear Weapons & Materials Monitor, RadWaste Monitor and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Technologies […]

If the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration take effect at the end of this week there will be “permanent damage” to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nonproliferation efforts, NNSA acting Administrator Neile Miller told the House Appropriations Energy and Water subcommittee yesterday. “Even with reprogramming authority, which again we must have if sequestration were to […]

House Appropriations Energy and Water Development subcommittee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) expressed concern about the rising costs of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility project at a budget hearing yesterday. Frelinghuysen noted the “limited funds” available to NNSA programs. “We don’t want this to suck up everything. There are a lot of things we need […]

Senate Republicans dropped their opposition of Chuck Hagel yesterday, approving President Obama’s controversial Defense Secretary nominee by a mostly party line 58-41 vote. Before the President’s Day recess, the GOP had filibustered Hagel, blocking Democrats from ending debate on Hagel and moving to a final vote, but a handful of Republicans switched sides yesterday to […]

With staffing levels already at near historic lows, the Government Accountability Office would be forced to cut another 100 employees if across-the-board sequestration cuts go into effect, Comptroller General Gene Dodaro told the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee yesterday. Dodaro said the GAO was bracing for a reduction of 5.3 percent to its Fiscal Year […]

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is poised to roll out a "salary reduction and closure day" plan to deal with the impact of across-the-board budget cuts that are set to go into effect Friday, lab Director Parney Albright told employees at an all-hands meeting yesterday. With the lab facing a potential $120 million shortfall, Albright detailed […]

A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators should have draft language for a bill to address managing the nation’s spent nuclear fuel “within weeks,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told press on the sidelines of an ARPA-E energy innovation summit yesterday. “I’m encouraged by the open meeting that we had, the four of us on the authorizing […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit yesterday reopened a case challenging the Department of Energy’s continued collection of the Nuclear Waste Fee from utilities following the shutdown of Yucca Mountain. This comes after the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in late January asked the Court to reopen its case, originally decided […]