Budget & Policy

John Howanitz will be promoted to president of Bechtel National’s nuclear, security and environmental global business effective Sept. 1, replacing the retiring Barbara Rusinko as the head of the Reston, Va.-based company’s nuclear business with the Department of Energy and other agencies worldwide. The company announced the impending change Wednesday in a press release.  Howanitz […]

Jill Hruby was scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. confirmation vote in the Senate Thursday that would install the ex-Sandia National Laboratories director as head of the National Nuclear Security Administration. Hruby would be the sixth Senate-confirmed administrator of the semi-autonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the part of the Department of Energy responsible for nuclear-weapons […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee was scheduled to vote Thursday morning on Department of Energy nominees for general counsel and two other posts. During the business meeting set for 9:30 a.m. Thursday, the committee planned to consider the nomination of Samuel Walsh to be DOE’s general counsel, Andrew Light to be assistant secretary […]

The House Appropriations Committee’s spending bill would provide the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio with more funds than the White House sought for community and regulatory support, including setting up a liaison to localities around the former gaseous diffusion plant, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) said Monday. The fiscal 2022 appropriations package for Energy […]

The House Appropriations Committee’s proposed Department of Energy budget for fiscal year 2022 would slash funding for one of the potential disposal routes for surplus weapon-usable plutonium that has to be removed from South Carolina under terms of a record-setting legal settlement. The bill would deny $145 million in 2022 funding requested for the Versatile […]

Wednesday is the deadline for members of the House to submit amendments to a six-bill spending package that includes the House Appropriations Committee’s 2022 spending proposal for the Department of Energy, the chamber’s Rules Committee said. After the amendments are in, the Rules Committee plans to meet sometime next week to finalize the rules of […]

Here are some events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week. 19 – Markup (CLOSED): Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee. Portions of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act that include Pentagon and DOE nuclear weapons programs. 20 – Virtual Forum: Hudson Institute. “Showdown at the IAEA: […]

House Appropriators didn’t go for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to trim the Inertial Confinement Fusion program’s budget by about $5 million in 2022 by using leftover 2021 funding to continue a portfolio of high energy density physics projects that can aid nuclear-weapons maintenance.  A bill approved Friday by the House Appropriations Committee would […]

The House Appropriations Committee proposed a marginal increase for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, to $7.8 billion from the $7.6 in 2021, as part of a 2022 spending bill sent to the House floor Friday. The full committee advanced the energy and water spending package on a 33-to-24 vote party line vote, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission hopes the two vacant seats on its executive committee won’t be gathering dust for too long, the agency’s head told Congress this week. “I think we work best when we have a full complement,” said NRC chair Christopher Hanson while testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday afternoon. Currently […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could grant licenses to a pair of proposed commercial interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel in the next six months, the commission’s chairman told Congress this week. The NRC should make its final call on Interim Storage Partners’ proposed site in west Texas should in September, Christopher Hanson, the NRC […]

The Joe Biden administration “may be moving” to start its inquiry into a possible host state for a federal interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, the chair of the House’s energy spending panel said this week. “I believe we provided enough authority in the bill for [a consent-based siting inquiry] to move forward …  […]

Most of the cash greenlit for the Department of Energy’s nuclear waste activities should go towards a program to designate a federal interim storage facility, the House Appropriations Committee recommended this week in its budget for the 2022 fiscal year. That proposal survived Friday’s three-hour markup of an energy and water bill Friday, after which […]

President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration is one of many political appointees for key national defense posts whose confirmation votes have been blocked in the Senate, multiple people have told Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. Some of these people told the Monitor this week that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) had held Jill Hruby’s […]

On a party line 33-24 vote Friday, the House Appropriations Committee approved a 2022 civilian nuclear weapons budget that includes requested funding for proposed plutonium pit factories but withholds funds for a few smaller nuclear weapons programs. The full House had not scheduled a vote on the bill at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & […]

A coalition of more than 30 citizen groups, called the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, wants President Joe Biden to nominate a Department of Energy assistant secretary for environmental management committed to cleanup and environmental justice, according to a Monday letter. Whoever gets picked to run the $7-billion-plus DOE Office of Environmental Management must have a […]

As part of a largely stay-the-course fiscal year 2022 budget, DOE’s Hanford Site in Washington state would get a little more money than requested for liquid waste cleanup while the National Nuclear Security Administration would get less money than requested for some smaller warhead and bomb development programs. The full House Appropriations Committee was scheduled […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could grant licenses to a pair of proposed commercial interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel in the next six months, the commission’s chairman told Congress Wednesday. The NRC should make its final call on Interim Storage Partners’ proposed site in west Texas should in September, Christopher Hanson, the NRC chair, […]

President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the National Nuclear Security Administration is one of many political appointees for key national defense posts whose confirmation votes have been blocked in the Senate, multiple people have told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.  Some of these people told the Monitor this week that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) had held […]

With COVID-19 vaccines now widely available in the U.S., federal agencies including the Department of Energy are supposed to set plans by Monday to return personnel to offices. The White House Office of Management and Budget gave federal agencies until July 19 to “finalize their phased plans for reentry and post-reentry,” according to a June […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission hopes the two vacant seats on its executive committee won’t be gathering dust for too long, the agency’s head told Congress Wednesday. “I think we work best when we have a full complement,” said NRC chair Christopher Hanson while testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday afternoon. Currently the […]

Christopher Hanson was scheduled to testify Wednesday before a pair of House subcommittees about the Nuclear Regulatory’s 2022 budget request, power plant decommissioning and nuclear waste management. The joint hearing of the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee and climate change subcommittee was scheduled to air on the committee’s website at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time. […]

There has been no big retirement spike among federal employees at the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup office during the COVID-19 pandemic but officials who spoke at a virtual hearing Tuesday fear that could change.  The assessment was offered by William “Ike” White, acting assistant secretary for environmental management, in response to a question from […]

The Joe Biden administration “may be moving” to start its inquiry into a possible host state for a federal interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel, the chair of the House’s energy spending panel said Monday. “I believe we provided enough authority in the bill for [a consent-based siting inquiry] to move forward …  and […]

The story “House Appropriators Propose Small Increase for Nuclear Weapons Cleanup” (Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, July 12, 2021) should have said that the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee’s fiscal year 2022 Department of Energy budget proposal would provide a little more funding than requested for nuclear weapons cleanup in fiscal year 2022. The […]

A coalition of more than 30 citizen groups, called the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, wants President Joe Biden to nominate a Department of Energy assistant secretary for environmental management committed to cleanup and environmental justice, according to a Monday letter. Whoever gets picked to run the $7-billion-plus DOE Office of Environmental Management must have a […]

The relatively flat National Nuclear Security Administration budget proposed by a House appropriations subcommittee on Monday “short changes” the national defense, the panel’s ranking Republican said Monday. The bill’s proposed “increase of less than 1% for the Weapons Activities does not even keep up with inflation,” Rep. Mike Simpson(Idaho), the ranking Republican on the House […]

It only took the House Appropriations Committee’s Energy and Water subcommittee about 20 minutes Monday to bless an almost $7.8-billion fiscal 2022 budget proposal for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management. Following a voice vote, the panel chaired by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) sent the proposal on to the full House Appropriations Committee […]

Here are some public events related to defense- and civilian-nuclear matters that the Exchange Monitor staff is tracking this week: July 12: The House Appropriations Committee Energy and Water Development Subcommittee holds its FY2022 Department of Energy budget markup. Remote access available here, starting at 1 p.m. Eastern time. 13: The House Energy and Commerce […]

Nuclear weapons cleanup at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management would get a little more funding than requested for fiscal year 2022, if a House subcommittee’s recommended budget becomes law. DOE Environmental Management (EM) would get just under $7.8 billion from the fiscal year 2022 spending bill the House Appropriations energy and water […]