The House Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development and related agencies scheduled a hearing for Wednesday, April 15 to review the Department of Energy’s budget request for fiscal 2027.
This hearing comes after the White House issued a budget request for fiscal 2027 that would give $32.8 billion to the DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and the DOE issued its budget justification document listing line items for each of NNSA’s subcategories. DOE’s Office of Environmental Management would receive $8.2 billion and Office of Nuclear Energy $1.5 billion, both less than the fiscal 2026 levels.
Schedules are subject to change, otherwise the hearing will be livestreamed at 2 p.m. Eastern time here.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) has introduced legislation to codify into law President Donald Trump’s May 23, 2025 nuclear-related executive orders.
The bill, Strengthening American Nuclear Energy Act of 2026, looks to make last year’s executive actions into law to protect the pro-nuclear policy from being undone via executive orders from future presidents, according to the Lummis March 26 press release. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) has cosponsored the bill in the Senate, while Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) introduced the House version in June 2025.
“Our country’s energy demands are only increasing, and meeting them requires every baseload source available,” Lummis said. “Next generation nuclear is reliable, clean, cost effective, and powerful, and it is exactly what America, and our allies need more of. America is moving forward toward energy dominance and next generation nuclear will help lead the way.”
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a proposed rule to create an additional licensing path for the Department of Energy and Pentagon demonstration reactors seeking commercial use.
NRC said in a Monday press release that within its new rule it will look to leverage design information from the DOE and Department of Defense reactor demonstrations in its reviews of commercial nuclear licensing applications. NRC is seeking public comment on the rule by May 4. The proposed rule comes as a part of NRC’s series of rulemakings demanded by Executive Order 14300. The action called for an overhaul at NRC, including a wholesale revision of its regulations.
NRC posted the proposed rule April 2 in the Federal Register. The proposal would revise 10 CFR Parts 50 and 53 and create a third pathway for reactors that were previously authorized by DOE/DoD. NRC said this would offer an expedited path for these reactors, building off prior work rather than repeating it. The Pentagon has shown increased interest in exploring the use of small modular reactors or microreactors at military bases.
Workers at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. could encounter more traffic in the coming days as perhaps 200,000 people roll into the area for the annual Masters Golf Tournament in neighboring Augusta, Ga.
Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters, is roughly 23 miles or a 35-minute car ride from the Savannah River National Laboratory at the DOE site, according to an Internet search.
The Masters, probably golf’s biggest tournament, is running from now through Sunday.
Nuclear cleanup managers at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina expect to complete liquid waste remediation sometime between 2037 and 2041, according to an updated federal plan.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management and contractor Savannah River Mission Completion (SRMC), a BWXT-led joint venture, issued the latest update of the site’s tank waste plan this week.
Savannah River Environmental Management officials have said in recent times they expected the liquid waste work to be largely done by 2037. The goal for emptying the last liquid waste tank at the site near Aiken, S.C. remains 2037, according to the report.
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) CEO Don Moul is set to retire from the federally-owned utility July 1, according to a Monday Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
Moul became the president and CEO of TVA in April 2025 after then-CEO Jeff Lyash retired. His tenure will come to a close after nearly one year. Prior to his time as CEO, Moul joined TVA as the chief operating officer in 2021.
Moul’s retirement announcement comes weeks after President Donald Trump proposed a $500,000 salary cap for all TVA employees on March 11. Under that proposal, Moul would have seen a 90% pay cut as he made around $5 million as TVA CEO in 2025, according to an April 4 Knoxville News Sentinel article.