Budget & Policy

This budget season, the Hanford Site got a bigger budget before Congress even published any appropriations bills, with the Joe Biden administration amending its 2023 spending request to provide over $90 million more for the biggest ongoing U.S. nuclear-weapons cleanup. The new Hanford figure is the result of a recent budget amendment from White House’s […]

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 […]

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 […]

Legislation unveiled Tuesday would put the deputy secretary of defense on the Nuclear Weapons Council once a year and attempt to put the Pentagon on the hook for some risk management in the Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapons enterprise. The proposal by the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee is part of the National Defense Authorization […]

The White House’s picks to fill out the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were scheduled to appear Wednesday before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the committee announced. The confirmation hearing for Annie Caputo and Bradley Crowell, who the Joe Biden administration tapped May 3 to become NRC commissioners, was on the slate for 10:00 a.m. […]

The annual defense appropriations process was set to begin in earnest Tuesday, when the House Armed Services Committee planned to reveal early details of its plans for the civilian nuclear weapons complex in 2023. The strategic forces subcommittee was set to unveil the text of its portion of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) […]

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 […]

06: Exchange Monitor’s annual Decommissioning Strategy Forum. 1 p.m. Pacific Time at the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa, 221 N Rampart Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89145.  08: Hearing, House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee. Markup of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023. Room 2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington. Streaming […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash), whose 4th Congressional district in Washington state includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, is facing multiple fellow Republicans, one of them a former NASCAR driver and another backed by former President Donald Trump, in an August primary, according to Ballotpedia.org. Jerrod Sessler is the best-funded of the four Republican challengers […]

The new head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy said Thursday she still plans to hire nuclear activist and advocate Sam Brinton.  Newly-sworn-in Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy Kathryn Huff confirmed her intentions during an interview with RadWaste Monitor.  Brinton, who identifies variously as male and female and uses the […]

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash), whose 4th Congressional district in Washington state includes the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, is facing multiple fellow Republicans, one of them a former NASCAR driver and another backed by former President Donald Trump, in an August primary, according to Ballotpedia.org. Jerrod Sessler is the best-funded of the four Republican challengers […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: June 01: Meeting. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “Transformation at the NRC—Sustaining Progress as Modern, Risk-Informed Regulator.” In person at NRC headquarters, Commissioners’ Conference Room, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md. and streaming online at 10 a.m. Eastern time. 02: […]

A Georgia congressman released a written request that House appropriators accept the White House’s funding request for the Savannah River Site’s proposed plutonium pit factory and reject a proposed cut for the site’s H-Canyon chemical separations plant. Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) made the requests ahead of Wednesday’s scheduled Member’s Day hearing, an annual exercise in […]

The leader of the House Armed Services Committee said Monday he sees “tough fights” ahead over President Biden’s proposals to cut the Navy’s nuclear-tipped sea-launched cruise missile program and retire B-83 gravity bombs as Congress takes up the next defense policy bill. Committee chair Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said he agreed with both policy proposals […]

A Georgia congressman released a written request that House appropriators accept the White House’s funding request for the Savannah River Site’s proposed plutonium pit factory and reject a proposed cut for the site’s H-Canyon chemical separations plant.  Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) made the requests ahead of Wednesday’s scheduled Member’s Day hearing, an annual exercise in […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week:  May 25: The Northern New Mexico Environmental Management Site Specific Advisory Board holds a hybrid meeting starting at 1 p.m. Mountain Time.   June 06-07: Exchange Monitor’s annual Decommissioning Strategy Forum at the JW Marriott Las Vegas […]

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) posted a video online over the weekend to mark the 33rd anniversary of the Tri-Party Agreement between Washington, D.C. and Washington state that governs cleanup of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site. Inslee used the anniversary of the 1989 legal agreement between the Washington Department of Ecology, DOE and the […]

It will take all summer to finalize a plan aimed at hastening construction of a key nuclear-weapon-component factory that has fallen behind schedule in South Carolina, a Pentagon official said Tuesday in a congressional hearing. It is nearly the end of the annual budget-hearing season in Washington, and federal agencies including the National Nuclear Security […]

National Nuclear Security Administrator Jill Hruby and the senior leadership of the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous nuclear weapons agency were set to testify before Senate appropriators at 10 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday morning.  The scheduled hearing before the Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee will be among the final hearings of the season […]

Here are some events related to defense and civilian matters that Exchange Monitor staff are tracking this week: 16: The Citizens Advisory Board for the Savannah River Site holds a public meeting starting at 1 p.m. E.T. The session can be assessed at the advisory board’s youtube page.  17: The Environmental Management Site Advisory Board […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch could greenlight hot commissioning of vitrification of low-activity tank waste in August 2023 at the Hanford Site in Washington state, and continues to mull the cost of a critical ventilation project at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. Those are among highlights from the Joe Biden […]

The fiscal 2023 Department of Energy budget request for the Hanford Site in Washington state advances plans for a new $23-million fire station within Area 400, according to justification details posted online last week. The Joe Biden administration proposes $3.1-million toward the new fire station during the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The budget […]

The Department of Energy’s fiscal 2023 budget request for nuclear cleanup at the Idaho National Laboratory includes $10 million toward early planning for  treatment and disposal of 1.2 million gallons of high-level radioactive calcine waste. Under the 1995 Idaho Settlement Agreement governing disposal of spent fuel, DOE has until Dec. 31, 2035 to treat the […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management plans to invest $40 million of grant money into poor communities and tribal governments near federal nuclear cleanup sites. William (Ike) White, the senior adviser and top federal boss at the Environmental Management (EM) office cited the Community Capacity Building initiative in his written testimony filed Wednesday […]

Kathryn Huff officially became the head of the Department of Energy’s nuclear energy office this week following her strongly bipartisan confirmation last week by the Senate. Huff, confirmed in a landslide May 5, was sworn in by Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm as DOE’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy, or NE-1, according to a Wednesday […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said it established a new initiative to improve energy security and climate-change friendliness at its nationwide enterprise of labs, plants and sites. The Energy Resilient Infrastructure and Climate Adaptation (ERICA) initiative “will be a critical element of NNSA’s multi-faceted strategy to identify, prioritize, and implement infrastructure investments that increase […]

This week, the House Appropriations panel that writes the first draft of the Department of Energy’s annual budget bill called off a hearing with the agency’s top nuclear weapons and waste leaders minutes into the proceedings. The hearing got no further than opening statements and a few questions from Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), the chair, […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management plans to invest $40 million of grant money into poor communities and tribal governments near federal nuclear cleanup sites. William (Ike) White, the senior adviser and top federal boss at the Environmental Management (EM) office cited the Community Capacity Building initiative in his written testimony filed Wednesday […]

One of the earliest employees at the Department of Energy, deputy general counsel Eric Fygi, is retiring this week about 45 years after joining the fledgling agency, a spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. “Fygi has been with the Department since its inception in 1977,” a DOE spokesperson said via email. “[H]e is currently DOE’s fifth-longest-tenured Federal employee, […]