Budget & Policy

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program received a funding bump in Fiscal Year 2013 that many agencies might envy, but the $7.58 billion requested by President Obama isn’t likely to appease some Congressional lawmakers that had expected the Administration to request even more as part of a plan to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons […]

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is holding up confirmation of a slate of Department of Energy nominees over the lack of DOE action on re-enriching a portion of its inventory of depleted uranium hexafluoride tails. Yesterday, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) asked for unanimous consent to confirm nominees for five senior DOE positions—Under Secretary of Energy, Assistant […]

A group of nuclear security experts lashed out at the Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget request yesterday, suggesting that cuts to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s nonproliferation account and State and Defense Department threat reduction work represented a “major step backwards in the fight against nuclear terrorism.” The Fissile Materials Working Group, which is […]

Members of Ohio and New York’s Congressional delegations are questioning the Department of Energy’s proposed Fiscal Year 2013 funding cuts for cleanup efforts at the Portsmouth and West Valley sites. In a written response to WC Monitor yesterday, Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) criticized DOE’s proposal to cut cleanup funds for the West Valley Demonstration Project […]

Could a nuclear vacation be in store for Reps. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.)? Perhaps if Markey accepts Turner’s invitation to tour uranium and plutonium facilities at the Y-12 National Security Complex and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Markey last week introduced legislation to slash nearly $100 billion in funding anticipated for modernizing the nation’s […]

A host of New Mexico state lawmakers are calling on Congressional appropriators to ensure that adequate levels of funding are provided for cleanup work at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. In letters sent Feb. 14 to the heads of the House and Senate Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittees, the […]

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), one of the leading voices in the Senate on nuclear weapons issues, lashed out yesterday at the Obama Administration’s decision to scale back its plans to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex and arsenal, accusing the Administration of breaking promises made during debate on the New START Treaty. Kyl was at […]

In what could be a sign of things to come, Capitol Hill lawmakers began to question the Obama Administration’s decision to defer construction of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility that had been planned for Los Alamos National Laboratory, with Sen. Jeff Bingaman quizzing Energy Secretary Steven Chu about the move at a Senate […]

While the Department of Energy has proposed a significant funding cut for the West Valley Demonstration Project next year, DOE and site cleanup contractor CH2M Hill-B&W West Valley, LLC, are holding off for now on comment on the potential impacts such a cut would have on cleanup progress and the site’s workforce. In its Fiscal […]

The House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee has set its hearing schedule for the next month-and-a-half and will begin the appropriations process with a 2 p.m. Feb. 28 hearing with Energy Secretary Steven Chu. NNSA Administrator Tom D’Agostino, Defense Programs chief Don Cook and Principal Assistant Deputy Administrator for Military Application Brig. Gen. Sandra Finan […]

The Department of Energy task force charged with coming up with a plan to implement recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future held its first meeting Friday. Nominally housed in DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, the task force is chaired by the NNSA’s Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner and includes representation from the relevant program […]

While chances have slimmed for Congressional support for a Department of Energy R&D program for USEC’s centrifuge plant fir this fiscal year, Hill staff say DOE could keep the program alive by taking on additional uranium tails liability from the company. Supporters of the project had hoped that the payroll tax extension legislation passed Friday […]

In a move that comes as little surprise, the U.S. nuclear industry has come out against the Obama Administration’s latest proposal for utilities to resume contributions to the federal uranium enrichment fund. The Department of Energy’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget request includes a proposal to reauthorize the fund, used to help cover cleanup costs at […]

Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) dismissed claims that Congress was to blame for the Obama Administration’s less-than-anticipated funding request for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program in FY2013, suggesting that the Administration should have fought harder to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex and arsenal. Congressional appropriators cut nearly $400 million from the Administration’s request […]

The Department of Energy’s proposal to significantly cut funding for the West Valley Demonstration Project next year is set to result in the slowdown of some cleanup activities, according to a Department spokesman, though the potential impact on the site’s workforce is still to be determined. Under DOE’s FY 2013 request, West Valley would receive […]

There are signs that budget rollbacks and jobs cuts at Los Alamos National Laboratory are entering the political arena, with an email blast to reporters from Republican Senate candidate Heather Wilson framing the problem in terms that suggest the partisan battle to come. Wilson, who served on the National Security Council and represented Albuquerque in […]

The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board is seeking a funding level of approximately $30 million for Fiscal Year 2013. The Board’s budget request of $29.4 million, sent to Congress last week, is roughly in line with current funding levels, though it does call for an additional $200,000 to enter into an agreement with the Nuclear […]

The Department of Energy is refusing to make public a recently prepared memorandum on how it will move forward with the greater release of contractor fee information. In response to a request from WC Monitor and NW&M Monitor late last week, DOE declined to issue the memo from Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman, citing the […]

Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration officials will make their first appearances before appropriators this week as Congressional budget season heats up in earnest. Energy Secretary Steven Chu will appear before the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee at 2 p.m. Tuesday, while NNSA Administrator Tom D’Agostino, Defense Programs chief Don Cook and […]

Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.), the ranking member of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, said yesterday that  he had “very serious reservations” about the Obama Administration’s request for $150 million for R&D efforts at USEC’s American Centrifuge Project included within the National Nuclear Security Administration’s FY 2013 budget request. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu […]

Senate Republicans continued to press the Administration on its commitment to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex and arsenal yesterday, this time taking their complaints to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing yesterday, Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho) accused the Administration of reneging on modernization-related promises […]

Predicting that the Obama Administration’s decision to abandon the Yucca Mountain project would be reversed by the courts, Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, urged Energy Secretary Steven Chu to begin preparing to restart the project at a House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee hearing yesterday. The Administration’s decision […]

Bucking some of his Republican colleagues, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), the chairman of the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, suggested yesterday that the panel would not provide additional funding for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program. Citing budgetary pressure, the Obama Administration requested $7.58 billion for the program in Fiscal Year 2013, approximately […]

Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) is expected to introduce the “Maintaining the President’s Commitment to our Nuclear Deterrent and National Security Act of 2012” this week in an attempt to hold the Obama Administration to the modernization commitments it made during debate on the New START Treaty. The bill is expected to strengthen language in the […]

The Nuclear Energy Institute has come out in support of a legislative proposal to require the Department of Energy to establish a pilot program to re-enrich a portion of its inventory of depleted uranium hexafluoride tails, with the proceeds from the sale of the re-enriched material to be used for cleanup activities. “This bill provides […]

House and Senate lawmakers face a big week as they are set to finish work on Fiscal Year 2012 appropriations bills and the FY2012 Defense Authorization Act. A Continuing Resolution that is funding the Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration expires Friday, the same day the House is set to leave Washington, and […]

With the clock ticking toward the Friday expiration of a stopgap measure funding the government, House and Senate appropriators stalled for the second straight day in their effort to complete work on a nine-bill omnibus spending package that includes the FY2012 Energy and Water Appropriations Act. Appropriators had hoped to unveil the spending bill the […]

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee condemned Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko in an extensive report on NRC leadership released yesterday in advance of today’s hearing on the agency. “The leadership of Chairman Gregory Jaczko has undermined Commissioners, staff, and the public confidence that the NRC can continue to remain focused on its […]

Responding to the allegations against NRC Chairman Jaczko, Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) sent a letter to President Obama yesterday calling for his immediate removal. “I am very concerned that a bipartisan group of Commissioners have contacted your office with specific examples of intimidation, bullying and withholding of information by Chairman Jaczko. To my knowledge, in […]

In a hearing marked by numerous terse exchanges, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko defended his management style at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing yesterday as he faced unprecedented allegations of intimidation and harassment from his fellow Commissioners and calls for his resignation from lawmakers. In testimony, the four other commissioners and […]