INCREASES IN EM, NNSA, AND NE - ENERGY AND WATER FY 24
ECA Staff | 03/05/2024 The House and Senate Appropriations Committees released a six-bill spending package of final Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bills. The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 will be considered in the House the week of March 4th, with the Senate to follow for a vote. Legislative action must be complete before the March 8 funding deadline that was set late last week to avoid a partial government shutdown. A summary of the package is available here.
Bill text is available here.
Joint explanatory statements for each division of the package is located at Division D - Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act,
2024 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies The Fiscal Year 2024 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act provides $58.2 billion in total funding for the Department of Energy, Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and independent agencies. Key Points & Highlights – Department of Energy The bill provides a total of $50.2 billion for the Department, including: - Nuclear Energy: The bill provides $1.7 billion. The funding invests in research, development, and demonstration activities to support the next generation of
clean and safe reactors, further improve the safety and economic viability of our current reactor fleet, and contribute to the nation’s long-term leadership in the global nuclear power industry. Additionally, the bill makes available up to $2.7 billion for uranium fuels, up to $900 million for small modular reactors, and up to $100 million for university-based nuclear reactor safety training.
- National Nuclear
Security Administration: The bill provides $24.1 billion for DOE’s nuclear security programs.
Both Los
Alamos and SRS saw increases in their budgets from the request for Pit Production modernization. This funding includes: - Weapons Activities – $19.1 billion to maintain a safe and reliable nuclear deterrent.
This includes $142 million above the budget request for Savannah River plutonium pit production, and a nearly $450 million increase above fiscal year 2023 for the Uranium Processing Facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
- Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation – $2.6 billion, an increase of $91 million above the fiscal year 2023 level and $72 million above the request. This funding secures nuclear material at home
and abroad, combats the threat of nuclear terrorism, and provides emergency response capabilities.
- Naval Reactors –$1.9 billion to continue safe and reliable operation of the Navy’s nuclear-powered fleet.
- Environmental Management: The bill provides $8.5 billion to fund the federal government’s responsibility to
clean up the nation’s defense sites (defense environmental is $7.2 billion-which is $211 million more than requested and increase of $260 million more than last year). In particular, the bill provides additional funding for clean-up sites at many of the sites. Key provisions for EM
Future Year Budgets.-The agreement reiterates direction for the Department to include out-year funding projections in the annual budget request for Environmental Management, and an estimate of the total cost and time to complete each site. Hanford.-Not later than 30 days after enactment of this Act, the Department shall provide to the Committees a briefing on the findings of the "Follow-on Report of
Analysis of Approaches to Supplemental Treatment of Low-Activity Waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation" completed by the federally funded research and development center and the "Review of the Continued Analysis of Supplemental Treatment Approaches of Low-Activity Waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation: Review #3" completed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 2023 pursuant to section 3125 of the FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act. Containment Ventilation Systems.-The agreement provides up to $7,000,000 for work on
qualification, testing, and research to advance the state-of-the-art containment ventilation systems. The agreement provides up to $5,000,000 to leverage the DOE Scholars Program to enable the training of technicians, engineers, and scientists to support cleanup and remediation activities
across the program. The agreement provides up to $5,000,000 for continued independent review, analysis, and applied research to support cost-effective, risk informed cleanup decision making. The budget tables identify specific site budgets - Science: The bill provides $8.2 billion in new directed funding—$140 million over fiscal year
2023—for the Office of Science. This funding will help implement the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The Office of Science is the largest federal sponsor of basic research in the physical sciences and supports 22,000 researchers at 17 national laboratories and more than 300 universities.
ECA staff will continue to monitor progress on FY 2024 Appropriations.
REGISTRATION IS LIVE FOR ECA's New Nuclear Forum: Building Nuclear Partnerships and Projects, May 8-9, 2024 in Kennewick,
WA
ECA is excited to be hosting its third New Nuclear Forum, the only meeting designed to bring together DOE, federal, state, local and tribal governments and policymakers with developers, utilities,
regulators, industry, and academia to identify opportunities, challenges and to build the partnerships necessary to support nuclear development. Communities across the country are considering nuclear projects for many reasons - from diversifying regional economies, creating clean energy jobs or meeting carbon reduction goals, to increasing energy security and rebuilding the U.S. supply chain. Some communities have a familiarity with nuclear energy projects, while others are just beginning to evaluate potential interest. The ECA
Forum is designed to enable shared learning so that local, State and Tribal governments evaluating nuclear projects can be meaningfully engaged - and prepared - to match the strengths and needs of their communities with new nuclear opportunities.
INTERESTED IN BEING A SPONSOR? To learn more about sponsorship opportunities, please contact Autumn Bogus, ECA Forum Staff, at [email protected].
QUESTIONS?
For any questions, comments, or to learn more about the ECA New Nuclear Forums, please contact Kara Colton,
ECA Director of Nuclear Policy, at [email protected] or Faith Sanchez, ECA Program Director, at [email protected].
NRC SETS STAGE FOR ADVANCED NUCLEAR WITH NEW PART 53 RULE
POWER | 03/04/2024 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has directed its staff to publish a proposed rule and draft guidance to create Part 53, a much-awaited risk-informed and technology-inclusive licensing framework geared toward advanced technologies, including non-light-water-reactors (non-LWRs). In a staff requirements memorandum (SRM) made public on March 4,
the commission directed staff to incorporate several changes to a March 2023 draft proposal within six months of the SRM’s issuance. A final version of the proposed rule is expected by September 2024. A final rule should be
issued within 12 to 18 months after the proposal’s publication, taking into account a public comment period, NRC Chair Christopher Hanson told reporters on Monday. While the 2019 Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (NEIMA) sets a deadline for the new framework’s rulemaking to be completed by December 2027, “I would hope [a final rule] would be still fully clear of that. I
don’t expect it to go out to 2027, certainly,” Hanson said. “The commission has been wanting to get moving on this, and we had urged the staff to put in more aggressive deadlines, so I think we’re well ahead of the statutory requirement.” Hanson noted the process will offer “a lot of other opportunities for stakeholder engagement and to provide feedback. And given the amount of interest that I think we’ve seen in this rule so far, no doubt that folks out there in the world will dive into this and share their perspectives with the staff and with the commission.” Continue reading >>
NEW MEDIA: ECA Webinar: Advanced Nuclear Technology Deployment: An Introductory Conversation with U.S. DOE & U.S. NRC February 21, 2024 | In coordination with the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), ECA hosted the first in a new series of educational webinars, "Advanced Nuclear Technology Deployment: An Introductory Conversation with U.S. DOE & U.S. NRC". ECA's Director of Nuclear Policy, Kara Colton, along with Dr. Kathryn
Huff, Assistant Secretary, Office of Nuclear Energy, DOE and John Lubinski, Director, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, NRC discussed advanced reactor development, demonstrations, and deployments.
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Check out ECA's latest
report! DISPOSAL DRIVES CLEANUP: RE-ENERGIZING MOMENTUM FOR DISPOSAL SOLUTIONS FOR RADIOACTIVE WASTE
This report calls on the Department of Energy to launch the initiative to develop the actual waste disposition approaches. The Department could potentially save hundreds of billions of dollars in cleanup costs by using its available tools and implementing the report’s recommendations.
Interactive guide for communities and governments to help navigate nuclear waste cleanup The Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) recently released the Guide to Successful Environmental Cleanup, an interactive online resource that provides frequently asked questions, case studies, and recommendations regarding nuclear waste cleanup. To assist local government officials, their communities, and federal agencies in deciphering
the complexities of the environmental cleanup process, ECA developed this guide to facilitate future successful cleanups.
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Learn More about Cleanup Sites with ECA's DOE Site Profiles ECA's new site profiles detail DOE's active Environmental Management cleanup sites and national
laboratories, highlighting their history, missions, and priorities. The profiles are a key source for media, stakeholders, and the public to learn more about DOE site activities, contractors, advisory boards, and their surrounding local governments.
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