SENATE TO VOTE AHEAD OF MIDNIGHT DEADLINE
ECA Staff | 03/08/2024 Today, the Senate plans to take a procedural vote at noon to pass a six-bill, $460 billion government-funding package to avoid a partial shutdown this weekend. House members passed this six-bill funding package earlier this week, 339-85. Four of the six bills face a deadline of midnight tonight.While work continues on the other six bills ahead of the next deadline, March 22. That includes Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, and Homeland Security. 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. 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].
THE LEGACY OF OPPENHEIMER'S NUCLEAR RESEARCH AT LOS ALAMOS
GAO WatchBlog | 03/07/2024 With 13 Academy Award nominations, Oppenheimer is favored to win big at this year’s Oscars on Sunday. The compelling film dramatizes one man’s struggle living with his legacy—J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb.” But the real-life legacy of nuclear weapon development for the U.S. stretches far beyond the 1940s and Oppenheimer. More than 80 years later, the federal government and communities surrounding the original sites used to build the bomb continue to struggle with nuclear waste cleanup. Today’s WatchBlog post looks at the status of cleanup efforts at Los Alamos, New Mexico—a nuclear site heavily featured in the
Oppenheimer movie. Continue reading >>
HOW A NAVAL PROVING GROUND BECAME A NATIONAL LAB THAT'S 'CHANGING THE WORLD'S ENERGY FUTURE'
East Idaho News | 02/29/2024 Establishing a nuclear testing site in eastern Idaho put America on the threshold of its greatest era of development. That’s how a 1949 Post Register editorial described the launch of the National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS), the predecessor to what is now Idaho National Laboratory. The desert site sat on 890 square miles of land 50 miles west of Idaho Falls that had previously been used as a naval proving ground to test reconditioned battle guns taken from ships fighting in the Pacific during World War II. America’s use of the world’s first nuclear weapons four years earlier had brought an end to the war. Two bombs were detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan,
killing 210,000 people. Japan surrendered, and that set the stage for a U.S. victory. It also “signaled the arrival of a new atomic age.” On Feb. 18, 1949, the Atomic Energy Commission picked up where the Navy left off. The former proving ground was selected as the site for a nuclear research facility. But this time, it wouldn’t be used to
test or develop weapons. Its sole purpose was to find ways to use atomic energy for peaceful means. 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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Stay Current on Activities in the DOE World Read the latest edition of the ECA Bulletin, a regular newsletter providing a detailed brief of ECA activities,
legislative news, and major events from across the DOE complex. Have suggestions for future editions? Email [email protected]. |
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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