The conference report for the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2017, released Wednesday, would allow $13.1 billion in funding for the Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.
That amount is roughly the midpoint of the $13.3 billion authorized under the House version of the bill and the $12.9 billion included in the Senate’s original legislation. The Obama administration had requested $12.9 billion.
Under the $619 billion conference bill, the agency could allot $9.4 billion for its nuclear-weapon operations and $1.9 billion for defense nuclear nonproliferation, with the rest going to nuclear reactor work and salaries and expenses.
Reports indicate the House will vote on the conference report on Friday, followed by Senate action early next week.
How much the NNSA will actually receive in the current budget year remains to be seen. The federal government is operating through Dec. 9 under a continuing resolution that freezes funding at fiscal 2016 levels. That puts the NNSA at $12.5 billion on an annualized basis.
Congress appears likely to approve another continuing resolution through March, giving the incoming Trump administration time to put its imprimatur on a final annual spending plan through Sept. 30.
The conference report maintains both chambers’ authorization of $340 million to continue construction of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The Obama administration proposed $270 million for shuttering the project, saying it has an alternative that would save tens of billions of dollars and shave years off the construction timeline. The facility is intended to convert 34 metric tons of excess weapon-usable plutonium into nuclear reactor fuel under a 2000 U.S.-Russian nonproliferation agreement recently suspended by the Kremlin.
The NDAA conference report calls on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Chief of Engineers, acting as an owner’s agent for DOE, to prepare a report on the “contract for the construction, management and operations of the MOX facility,” covering contractual, technical, and managerial risks for the agency and its contractor, CB&I MOX Services. The report would also address parts of the contract that can be shifted to a fixed-price provision, fixed-price with incentive fee provision, or other contractual method to lower both risk to DOE and the project’s cost.
