Budget & Policy

The White House’s independent nuclear safety and radioactive waste technology organizations would get every dime of the funding they asked for if the House’s version of the 2023 budget became law, according to a report published this week by House appropriators. In its 2023 budget report published Monday, the House Appropriations energy and water development […]

House appropriators want to provide the National Nuclear Security Administration with all the funding it requested in 2023 to build plutonium pit factories in New Mexico and South Carolina and fund a megaton-capable bomb the White House wanted to kill. The 2023 energy and water development appropriations act, slated for a vote in the House […]

House appropriators on Monday reversed course and agreed to the White House’s request to move interim spent fuel funding out of the Department of Energy’s dedicated Nuclear Waste Disposal account, according to a draft budget report. Interim storage funding proposals in the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee’s 2023 budget report, published Monday, appeared […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: 28: Markup, House Appropriations Committee. Fiscal year 2023 energy and waste appropriations bill. This is the first draft of the bill that includes the Department of Energy’s budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. 10:00 Eastern […]

The House Appropriations Committee was scheduled Tuesday to vote on the first draft of the 2023 spending bill that funds nuclear weapons and waste programs at the Department of Energy and other agencies.  Defense nuclear weapons and waste programs at DOE would receive roughly the funding requested for 2023, under the bill approved last week […]

The ranking member of the House’s energy and water appropriations subcommittee said this week he wants more clarity on a White House proposal to move cash for its consent-based interim storage effort out of the Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight program. “I don’t know what the reasoning behind it is,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) told RadWaste […]

Proposed funding in the House for the Department of Energy’s nuclear power office was up slightly compared with the White House’s request, according to a draft of the lower chamber’s 2023 energy and water spending bill reported out of an appropriations subcommittee this week. If it became law, the House’s proposed budget would allocate around […]

The National Defense Authorization Act passed early Thursday morning by the House Armed Services Committee roughly matches the White House’s modified request for the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons cleanup in 2023. The bill, an annual must-pass piece of legislation that sets policy and spending limits for military and civilian defense programs, would authorize DOE’s […]

The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday voted for more scrutiny of Department of Energy nuclear-weapon-site contracting and against a proposal to condition funding for the Secretary of Defense’s office on an intercontinental ballistic missile test. The votes were part of the committee’s debate of the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons budget would increase year-over-year for 2023 but come up short against the Joe Biden administration’s request, under legislation a House subcommittee approved Tuesday. For the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the semiautonomous nuclear-weapons agency, the subcommittee proposed about $21.2 billion, short of the request by almost $180 million, or […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration would be authorized to spend $375 million more than requested on a plutonium pit factory at the Savannah River Site in fiscal year 2023, if a bill passed early Thursday morning by the House Armed Services Committee becomes law. The agency would also be allowed, along with the Navy, to […]

The National Defense Authorization Act passed early Thursday morning by the House Armed Services Committee authorizes nearly $315 million more for the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons cleanup in 2023 than the White House originally requested. The bill, an annual must-pass piece of legislation that sets policy and spending limits for military and civilian defense […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration would be authorized to spend $375 million more than requested on a plutonium pit factory at the Savannah River Site in fiscal year 2023, if a bill passed early Thursday morning by the House Armed Services Committee becomes law. The agency would also be allowed, along with the Navy, to […]

The ranking member of the House’s energy and water appropriations subcommittee said Tuesday he wants more clarity on a White House proposal to move cash for its consent-based interim storage effort out of the Nuclear Waste Fund Oversight program. “I don’t know what the reasoning behind it is,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) told Exchange Monitor […]

Proposed funding in the House for the Department of Energy’s nuclear power office was up slightly compared with the White House’s request, according to a draft of the lower chamber’s 2023 energy and water spending bill scheduled for debate Tuesday. If it became law, the House’s proposed budget would allocate around $1.78 billion to DOE’s […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons budget would increase year-over-year for 2023 but come up short against the Joe Biden administration’s request, under legislation a House subcommittee planned to debate on Tuesday. Meanwhile, under the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee’s recently unveiled bill, the budget for cleanup of shuttered nuclear-weapons production sites handled […]

Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) has prepared an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill, up for debate this week, that could withhold 10% of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget until the agency completes more reports about its plans to manufacture new nuclear-weapon cores. The amendment would alter the draft of the fiscal year 2023 […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian nuclear matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: 21: Markup, House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee. Fiscal year 2023 subcommittee appropriations bill. This is the first draft of the bill that includes the Department of Energy’s budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. […]

Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will not publish Monday, June 20, 2022, in observance of the Juneteenth National Independence Day holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Tuesday, June 21.

The House Appropriations defense subcommittee was set to mark up the first draft of the Pentagon’s fiscal 2023 budget on Wednesday, and the bill contains no funding for the nuclear-tipped Sea Launched Cruise Missile, according to a summary the subcommittee released Tuesday morning. The legislation, telegraphed in March by the recommendation in President Joe Biden’s […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has not won Rep. Adam Smith’s (D-Wash.) unconditional trust, but it has convinced him to authorize the agency’s plan to produce plutonium pits in two states, the House Armed Services chair told reporters Wednesday. “Yes, I believe we are going to move forward with what the NNSA [National Nuclear Security […]

House authorizers want to kill a megaton-capable gravity bomb and a nuclear-tipped, sea-launched cruise missile, but their counterparts in the Senate do not. The split on the Hill over the two weapons, which the Joe Biden administration wants to kill, was revealed Thursday in dueling National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAA) for fiscal year 2023.  Democrats […]

The House Appropriations defense subcommittee was set to mark up the first draft of the Pentagon’s fiscal 2023 budget on Wednesday, and the bill contains no funding for the nuclear-tipped Sea Launched Cruise Missile, according to a summary the subcommittee released Tuesday morning. The legislation, telegraphed in March by the recommendation in President Joe Biden’s […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week. June: 12-16 – The American Nuclear Society hosts its annual meeting at the Anaheim Hilton in Anaheim, Calif. NE-1 Kathryn Huff among the confirmed speakers. Register here. Recordings of plenary and executive sessions available to attendees. 13: Closed markup, […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Your RadWaste Monitor reporter took the red-eye back into D.C. last night and is looking forward to a much-needed weekend break — but before that, here are some other stories from this week across the civilian nuclear power space. BWXT secures Project Pele microreactor contract from DOD The Department of Defense’s Strategic […]

A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee is neutral on whether the Department of Energy should lead any revived federal research effort on potential health impacts of low-dose radiation, the head of the panel, said Friday. Tribal communities and atomic workers “generally do not support” a DOE-run low-dose radiation program, Joe Gray, professor […]

A House Armed Services Committee panel wants the Government Accountability Office to scrutinize quality assurance steps taken by the Depart of Energy’s $7.6-billion nuclear cleanup office, according to a House subcommittee draft  of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2023. The House Armed Services’ strategic forces , subcommittee chaired by Rep. Jim Cooper, (D-Tenn.) […]

President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a two-year extension of a law providing financial compensation to certain people sickened by radioactivity from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) Extension Act of 2022 is a clean, two-year extension for the federal program, which is open to atmospheric test participants, certain uranium miners […]

A National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine committee is neutral on whether the Department of Energy should lead any revived federal research effort on potential health impacts of low-dose radiation, the head of the panel, said Friday. Tribal communities and atomic workers “generally do not support” a DOE-run low-dose radiation program, Joe Gray, professor […]

The House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee approved its contributions to the fiscal year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act Wednesday, kicking up to the full committee a package of reforms for the Nuclear Weapons Council and an order to study modernization of the Pantex Plant, among other things. The subcommittee completed its markup without debate […]