Proposed funding would boost DOE budget by $3.3 bn, HASC begins FY23 NDAA markup
ECA Staff | 6/22/2022
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APPROPRIATIONS
On Tuesday, members of the House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee advanced a bill proposing increased funding levels for the Department of Energy (DOE) in fiscal year 2023. The subcommittee bill provides $56.3 billion in total, an increase of $3.4 billion above fiscal year 2022. This boosted funding level includes $48.2 billion for DOE, an increase of $3.3 billion above FY2022.
The bill provides $7.88 billion for the Office of Environmental Management (EM). This figure originally represented an increase above the Administration’s request; however, the Administration recently revised its budget request for the Hanford Site, which would boost the site’s budget by
about $191 million. The bill’s proposed funding for EM is now approximately $146 million under the Administration’s request and around $20 million lower than the FY2022 appropriated level.
The bill also proposes $21.2 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, about $200 million below the Administration’s request, but $1.5 billion above the FY2022 appropriated amount.
A funding breakdown from the subcommittee’s website is below.
- Environmental Management – The bill provides $7.88 billion. This funding is used for nuclear cleanup work at 15 sites across the country. This includes:
- Non-Defense Environmental Cleanup – The bill provides $333.9 million, an increase of $10.6 million above the request.
- Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning – The bill provides $823.3 million, an increase of $900,000 above the request.
- Defense Environmental Cleanup – The bill provides $6.7 billion, an increase of $12.5 million above the fiscal year 2022 level.
- National Nuclear Security Administration – The bill provides $21.2 billion for DOE’s nuclear security programs. This funding will maintain a safe, secure, and credible nuclear deterrent while addressing the threat of nuclear proliferation and terrorism. This includes:
- Weapons Activities – The bill provides $16.3 billion, an increase of $413 million above the fiscal year 2022 level.
- Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation – The bill provides $2.42 billion, an increase of $70 million above the fiscal year 2022 level and $77 million above the request.
- Naval Reactors – The bill provides $2 billion, an increase of $82 million above the fiscal year 2022 level.
- Nuclear Energy – The bill provides $1.78 billion, an increase of $125 million above the fiscal year 2022 level and $105 million above the request.
- Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy – The bill provides $4 billion, an increase of $800 million above the fiscal year 2022 level.
- State and Community Energy Programs – The bill provides $562 million, an effective increase of $135 million above the fiscal year 2022 level.
- Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy – The bill provides $550 million, an increase of $100 million above the fiscal year 2022 level.
- Science – The bill provides $8 billion, an increase of $525 million above the fiscal year 2022 level and $201 million above the request.
- Energy Projects – The bill provides $117.3 million for Community Project Funding in the Department of Energy.
- Nuclear Waste Disposal – The bill provides $10.2 million for oversight of the Nuclear Waste Fund.
The Committee also proposed a total net appropriation of $137 million for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, $41.4 million for the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, and $3.9 million for the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board.
To read a full summary of the draft bill, please click here.
On Tuesday, June 28, the full Appropriations Committee will mark up the energy bill, where Members will have the opportunity to adjust funding levels before sending the bill to the House floor.
NDAA
Today, the House Armed Services Committee will commence its markup of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY2023. The Administration’s topline request is nearly $803 billion, but the committee may be poised to recommend an even higher figure, around $840 billion.
Last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee completed its markup and released a summary of its version of the bill, which recommended an $857 billion topline.
The topline for NNSA in the House committee’s bill is $21.4 billion, a recommended increase of $20 million above the Administration’s request. The Senate’s bill would authorize $22 billion for NNSA.
The House NDAA also includes $6.9 billion for defense environmental cleanup, equivalent to the Administration’s request. Meanwhile, the Senate’s bill would recommend cutting such funding (a $6.5 billion level), which would be a decrease from this year’s budget request and last year’s appropriated level.
The House bill notes NNSA’s acknowledgement that production of 80 plutonium pits by 2030 is not achievable. A new provision would instead require the federal government to produce however many pits are identified as necessary by the Secretary of Defense, and ensure that Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility have the ability to produce at least 30 and 50 pits during any year, respectively.
This would effectively eliminate the “80 pits by 2030” requirement. LANL would remain the Plutonium Science and Production Center of Excellence for the United States.
The House bill also includes a provision that would require the Nuclear Weapons Council to annually review the plans and budget of NNSA and “assess whether such plans and budget meet the current and projected requirements relating to nuclear weapons.”
This assessment will include “whether the plans and budget reviewed…will enable the Administrator to meet the requirements to produce war reserve plutonium pits.” If the requirements for pit production are not met, the bill would require “(i) an explanation for why the plans and budget will not enable the Administrator to meet such requirements; and (ii) proposed alternative plans, budget, or requirements by the Council to meet such requirements.”
The House markup of the NDAA may be streamed using the link here.
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SAVE OUR DATES
September 21-23, 2022
NEW VENUE: CRYSTAL GATEWAY MARRIOTT IN ARLINGTON, VA!
We are pleased to host the 2022 National Cleanup Workshop at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, VA. Join us to discuss a new era of cleanup success. Hear from senior DOE officials, local government officials, and industry leaders about DOE's cleanup priorities, the future of the workforce, and more.
Additional information on registration and hotel room blocks is available here. We look forward to seeing you in September!
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SAVE OUR DATES
August 3-5, 2022
Salt Lake City Marriott University Park
Recognizing the opportunity to address goals shared broadly among U.S. Department of Energy program offices and in frontline communities across the federal nuclear complex, the Energy Communities Alliance will host the ECA Forum: Hosting New Nuclear Development on August 3-5,
2022 at the Salt Lake City Marriott University Park.
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Kathryn Huff, DOE AS/Sec Nuclear Energy, lists priorities
Neutron Bytes | 6/9/2022
This is a transcript of an interview with Dr. Kathryn Huff, Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, which was released by the agency on 06/08/22.
Dr. Kathryn Huff (right) was confirmed by the Senate and takes over a $1.7 billion R&D portfolio for the Office of Nuclear Energy (NE). Prior to her confirmation, she served as a senior advisor to Secretary Jennifer Granholm and was NE’s principal deputy assistant secretary.
Dr. Huff steps into the role at a crucial moment for nuclear energy as the industry looks to maintain its existing fleet, deploy advanced reactors, and address key issues with its infrastructure and supply chain.
She recently shared her priorities for the office, thoughts on the challenges ahead, and her perspective on future role of nuclear energy in the nation’s clean energy transition.
Q: DOE is requesting $1.7 billion in FY23 for the Office of Nuclear Energy. What are your top priorities in managing the office’s R&D portfolio?
A: We need to maintain the existing nuclear fleet and enable light-water reactors to sustain our carbon-free transition. We also need to build out advanced reactors. I think we have a lot of programs that target that, both from the R&D side but also in demonstration and deployment, particularly through the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. Of course, none of it will be sustainable unless we put sufficient attention towards our spent nuclear fuel challenges
and ensure that the government is making progress on its commitments to manage it responsibly.
Q: During your time as the principal deputy assistant secretary for NE, you spearheaded the restart of the consent-based siting process for federal interim storage facilities. Why is this an important step forward?
A: The federal government is responsible for managing spent nuclear fuel and the industry has paid a mil per kilowatt-hour for a very long time to support that endeavor and I’m a big fan of living up to your commitments. By making progress toward consent-based siting for an interim storage facility, we can take on the
responsibility of removing that spent nuclear fuel from the sites at which it’s been abandoned. But broadly, I think this is a start that has a lot of roots in processes that have succeeded elsewhere. I think by leveraging a consent-based strategy for siting these facilities, we have a real chance of succeeding this time and we can rely on the things that we’ve learned before, as well as what’s been learned internationally about making these sites work.
Q: Prior to your confirmation, you were advising the secretary during Russia’s invasion in Ukraine. How has this conflict impacted civil nuclear programs both at home and abroad?
A: The images coming out of Ukraine over the course of the last few months have been deeply impactful and distressing. As a democratic nation, we should be concerned for the safety and security of all democratic nations…One of the key components of this is energy security. Nuclear power provides a clean option that also has some energy security associated with it. By being a highly dense energy source that’s refueled very seldom, we have an opportunity to bring up
that supply chain in such a way that it’s robust, it doesn’t require constant attention, shipments, pipelines etc… We recognize now that we have, over the last many years and decades, allowed other competitor nations to play a role in the supply chains for our fuels, including nuclear fuel, and this is an opportunity for the United States to bolster the security of those supply chains for us, as well as our democratic allies.
Q: U.S. sanctions on Russia could impact the nation’s ability to acquire enough enriched uranium for the current fleet and new advanced reactor demonstration projects. What is DOE doing to ensure they can help meet this fuel demand?
A: The secretary has stood up a really important endeavor—a uranium strategy tiger team that the Office of Nuclear Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration are working together on. That tiger team is focused on enabling a strategy that can give a comprehensive look at where our fuel cycle supply chain stands and how the DOE can bolster it. Our goal here is to ensure that, in the very near term, we have a plan. If Congress decides to appropriate funding
and authorities to do so, we have a plan to help encourage our existing commercial nuclear fuel cycle suppliers to stand up new capacity and enable our fuel supply chain.
Q: What do you feel is the biggest challenge for nuclear energy right now?
A: In the United States, we have lost a lot of capability to build big complex engineering projects on time and on budget. I do think that this is a moment for us to seize an opportunity and demonstrate that we still can do this. The investors and financial interests that are ready to put dollars on the table for our clean energy transition, they need to see some predictability in those timelines and budgets and I think that’s an opportunity that nuclear really could
hold in its hand if we can see these new demonstration projects come through as expected in a predictable way.
Q: DOE’s new Civil Nuclear Credit Program is accepting applications to support the continued operation of U.S. reactors. How impactful can this program be?
A: This program is absolutely critical. Nuclear power provides half of our nation’s clean electricity and it is the single largest source of our clean electricity. We cannot allow these plants to be economically at risk because we failed to recognize their important contributions to our clean energy system, to
our firm energy capacity, and our energy resilience. Once a nuclear plant closes, it can be very hard to start it back up again, so we really just cannot allow them to close in the context in which we need them.
Q: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also includes more than $2.5 billion to support the demonstration of two advanced reactors in the U.S. and at least one nuclear-hydrogen demo project. How important are these projects to the future of the industry?
A: The two demo projects and the hydrogen demonstrations are the future of the industry. As we look at those technologies being demonstrated here in the United States, they create the opportunity for the second-, third-, fourth-, and fifth-of-a-kind to be built, not only here in the United States, but elsewhere with our democratic partners interested in expanding their nuclear capacity. If we want to enable nuclear and renewables to work together on a clean energy
grid, hydrogen is going to be absolutely necessary. Heat plus electrons is a great way to create hydrogen and can be an excellent demonstration of what’s possible with nuclear.
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Read about DOE's High Level Waste Interpretation
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Interested in learning more? Read the ECA report “Making Informed Decisions on DOE's Proposed High Level Waste Definition” at www.energyca.org/publications
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