Budget & Policy

Marvin Adams, the Joe Biden administration’s to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration’s defense programs from agency headquarters, has the support of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s powerful Republican ranking member.  Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) “expects to support this nomination when the committee votes,” a spokesperson for committee Republicans wrote Monday in an email.  Adams, […]

Another nuclear plant closure is partly to blame for a slight increase in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s proposed decommissioning budget for the 2023 fiscal year, the agency said in a budget justification document published Monday. Projected spending for NRC’s decommissioning and low-level waste program was up to around $23.9 million for 2023, according to the […]

The story “Fed review of RLUOB recategorization in May” [Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, March 15, 20222] should have said the Radiological Laboratory/Utility/Office Building can legally accept just under 40 grams of plutonium at once.

The Joe Biden administration last week requested a budget of $41 million for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board in fiscal 2023, an increase of $5 million over $36 million from the 2022 omnibus passed in early March. That 2023 request is about a 14% year-over-year increase for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). […]

The Department of Energy is looking for someone within the agency to run the Office of Nuclear Energy’s spent nuclear fuel programs, according to an internal job listing obtained last week by RadWaste Monitor. According to the posting, DOE is hiring a 120-day detail for the Senior Executive Service (SES) position of assistant secretary for […]

The Department Energy’s nuclear remediation branch would see its total funding slide to $7.64 billion under the Joe Biden administration’s budget request for fiscal 2023, down from almost $7.9 billion appropriated for fiscal 2022. If Congress approved the requested funding, it would return the DOE Office of Environmental Management to roughly its fiscal 2021 appropriation.  […]

Proposed 2023 funding for the Department of Energy’s nuclear power authority, which runs the agency’s civilian nuclear waste programs, was about flat compared to 2022 appropriations, according to budget documents released this week.  The White House proposed around $1.67 billion for DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), according to its budget request published Monday. That […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration has requested a roughly 60% increase in fiscal year 2023 for the part of its budget that funds the rebuilding of critical nuclear-weapons production infrastructure including plutonium pits, a Department of Energy document published Tuesday shows. The semiautonomous DOE nuclear-weapons agency seeks some $4.6 billion for Production Modernization in fiscal […]

The Joe Biden administration is requesting nuclear legacy cleanup spending of $332 in fiscal 2023 for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, a big jump from the $275 million in the final appropriation for fiscal 2022, passed only a few weeks ago. The $275 million in the current fiscal year […]

A one-page Department of Defense fact sheet issued this week appeared to confirm that President Joe Biden would not declare a no-first use of nuclear weapons policy.  “As long as nuclear weapons exist, the fundamental role of U.S. nuclear weapons is to deter nuclear attack on the United States, our allies, and partners,” reads the […]

If it became law, the White House’s 2023 budget proposal for the Department of Energy’s nuclear power portfolio would include an increase in nuclear fuel cycle research, according to a budget document published Tuesday. Of the roughly $422 million proposed for DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) fuel cycle research and development program, around $20 […]

The story “NRC Decom Budget Request Up Slightly for 2023,” [Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, March 29, 2022], should have said that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s total funding for fiscal 2022 was $887.7 million.

The National Nuclear Security Administration has requested a roughly 60% increase in fiscal year 2023 for the part of its budget that funds the rebuilding of critical nuclear-weapons production infrastructure including plutonium pits, a Department of Energy document published Tuesday shows. The semiautonomous DOE nuclear-weapons agency seeks some $4.6 billion for Production Modernization in fiscal […]

If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s budget request for the 2023 fiscal year is approved by Congress, the agency’s nuclear decommissioning oversight activities would get a small increase, according to budget justification documents published Monday. NRC’s request for its decommissioning and low-level waste segment was around $24 million for fiscal 2023, according to budget tables the […]

While the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state would receive a haircut under the fiscal 2023 budget request rolled out Monday by President Joe Biden’s administration, a citizen group leader expects Congress will beef up the cleanup appropriation for the former plutonium production facility. Funding for the Richland Operations Office would be $818 […]

The Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons budget would get a small bump for fiscal year 2023 while its nuclear waste budgets would fall a little year-over-year, under a White House budget proposal released Monday. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) would receive about $21.5 billion for fiscal year 2023, some $750 million more than the […]

The Joe Biden administration was scheduled to release preliminary details about its fiscal year 2023 budget request on Monday, including top-line requests for defense and civilian nuclear programs at the Department of Energy. The annual budget rollout marks the start of the spring and summer negotiating season between the White House and Congress. Lawmakers traditionally […]

Public input about the Department of Energy’s proposed consent-based siting process for a federal interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel could be published by March 31, an agency official said this week. A full collection of responses DOE received as part of its November request for information (RFI) should be available “by the end […]

The federal government must prioritize changing U.S. nuclear waste law as it eyes a spent fuel storage solution, a community stakeholders group said during a panel discussion this week. Amending the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) is “one of the things that needs to happen” before the federal government can move forward on interim storage, […]

Washington state Department of Ecology Director Laura Watson and her top nuclear waste manager, David Bowen, visited Washington, D.C., last week to urge that more cleanup funds for the Hanford Site be included in the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2023 budget. The Ecology officials were in the nation’s capital March 14-16 while President Joe Biden […]

The federal government must prioritize changing U.S. nuclear waste law as it eyes a spent fuel storage solution, a community stakeholders group said during a panel discussion Wednesday. Amending the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) is “one of the things that needs to happen” before the federal government can move forward on interim storage, Kara […]

Washington state Department of Ecology Director Laura Watson and her top nuclear waste manager, David Bowen, visited Washington, D.C., last week to urge that more cleanup funds for the Hanford Site be included in the Department of Energy’s fiscal 2023 budget. The Ecology officials were in the nation’s capital March 14-16 while President Joe Biden […]

A story in the March 09 issue of Weapons Complex Morning Briefing [“NNSA budget up in omnibus; prohibitions against B83, sea-launched W80-4 gone”] should have said that the National Nuclear Security Administration plans to cast pits at a planned facility at the Savannah River Site.

Here are some events related to defense and civilian matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: 21 – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was scheduled to host a public meeting about its proposed decommissioning rule for nuclear power plants. Officially, “Regulatory Improvements for Production and Utilization Facilities Transitioning to Decommissioning.” Streaming online or […]

The Washington Department of Ecology says Congress’ Hanford’s fiscal 2022 appropriation is a few hundred million dollars short of meeting the site’s legal obligations for the year. At a Tuesday public Zoom briefing, the Washington State Department of Ecology put Hanford’s  congressional appropriation for fiscal 2022 at $2.95 billion, under the omnibus budget bill signed […]

Personnel at DOE headquarters in Washington completed their “reentry” to the work place after two years of maximum telework during the COVID-19 pandemic, a spokesperson said Thursday, though headquarters had not yet tallied the exact number of people who returned to their pre-pandemic work stations. “On Monday, DOE completed its formal reentry process at most […]

Christopher Davis will be Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm’s next chief of staff, Granholm wrote Friday in an all-hands email. Davis, according to his LinkedIn profile, has been a senior advisor to Granholm since right around Inauguration Day, prior to which he held various roles at DOE dating back to 2011. Before that, he spent […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is working to hammer out the details of its role in the Department of Energy’s legally-mandated civil nuclear credits program, according to slides published this week in advance of a planned NRC meeting. The commission is “developing criteria” to evaluate applications from economically-troubled nuclear plant operators hoping to get a piece […]

Talks on the future of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina are continuing between the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration, Nicole Nelson-Jean, a veteran of both DOE branches, said during a recent industry gathering. Nelson-Jean, currently associate principal deputy assistant secretary for field operations for the […]

Christopher Davis will be Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm’s next chief of staff, Granholm wrote Friday in an all-hands email. Davis, according to his LinkedIn profile, has been a senior advisor to Granholm since right around Inauguration Day, prior to which he held various roles at DOE dating back to 2011. Before that, he spent […]