President to Sign Fiscal Year 2014 Funding Bill into Law: DOE Funding Details Available
Published: Fri, 01/17/14
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FY 2014 Consolidated Appropriations: DOE Provision Highlights: Complete Text
The following items are compiled from the Joint Explanatory Statement of the Department of Energy section of the Fiscal Year 2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act.
Defense Environmental Cleanup: Outstanding Risks to Public Health and Safety.-The Department is directed to retain a respected outside group, such as the National Academy of Sciences, to rank and rate the relative risks to public health and safety of the Department of Energy's remaining environmental cleanup liabilities. Additionally, the group should undertake an analysis of how effectively the Department of Energy identifies, programs, and executes its plans to address those risks, as well as how effectively the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board identifies and elevates the nature and consequences of potential threats to public health and safety at the defense environmental cleanup sites. The group shall provide a report to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate not later than one year after enactment of this Act.
Additional Actions to Address Security of Nuclear Materials.-The Department is directed to retain a respected independent organization with expertise in defense and security matters, such as the Institute for Defense Analysis, to conduct a comprehensive review of options for security management reform, including federalization of protective forces, and provide recommendations on organizational models for securing the Department's sites with Category I special nuclear materials that might improve security effectiveness and reduce costs. The group shall provide a report with the results of its analysis to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate not later than 180 days after enactment of this Act.
Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies.-Within available funds, the agreement provides $24,300,000 for the fifth year of the Modeling and Simulation Energy Innovation Hub, $13,366,000 for Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation, and $19,563,000 for the National Science User Facility (NSUF) at Idaho National Laboratory. Additional funding for the NSUF shall be used to accelerate the population of the Irradiated Materials Characterization Laboratory with equipment and shielded cells.
SMR Licensing Technical Support Program.-The agreement provides $110,000,000 for the Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Licensing Technical Support Program, of which $85,000,000 shall be for the existing cooperative agreement.
Reactor Concepts Research and Development.-Within available funds, the agreement provides $23,000,000 for SMR Advanced Concepts; $30,000,000 for Light Water Reactor Sustainability; and $60,000,000 for Advanced Reactor Concepts, of which $33,000,000 shall be for research of the fuel and graphite qualification program for the High Temperature Gas Reactor previously funded under the Next Generation Nuclear Plant line and $12,000,000 shall be for industry-only competition. Additional funding for Light Water Reactor Sustainability shall support development of advanced safety analysis methods for existing light water reactors.
The Department is directed to engage in a rigorous analysis utilizing its recently integrated high-speed computing or recently developed advanced modeling and simulation capabilities to evaluate the benefit of new enhanced accident tolerant fuels.
Fuel Cycle Research and Development.-The agreement provides $186,500,000. In lieu of all previous fiscal year 2014 direction, the agreement's direction is limited to $60, I 00,000 for the Advanced Fuels program to continue implementation of accident-tolerant fuels development, of which $3,000,000 28 shall be to advance promising and innovative research, including ceramic cladding and other technologies. Not later than 30 days after enactment of this Act, the Department shall provide the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate a plan for development of meltdown-resistant fuels leading to in-reactor testing and utilization by 2020 as required in the Fiscal Year 2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act.
Radiological Facilities Management.-Within available funds, the agreement provides $20,000,000 for hot cells at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund.-The agreement provides $598,823,000 for activities funded from the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund.
Uranium Processing Facility.-The agreement provides $309,000,000 to support the full funding requirements for continued facility design and is an adjustment due to the Department of Energy's recent decision to consider additional alternatives to meet the uranium infrastructure needs at Y-12 that might save costs and lead to a replacement facility for Building 9212 in a shorter period of time.
Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility.-The agreement provides $343,500,000. The Department of Energy is directed to undertake a root cause analysis that identifies the underlying causes of the cost increases for the MOX and Waste Solidification Building projects and that includes the identification and prioritization of recommended solutions and corrective measures. The Department shall submit a report on the results of its analysis to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate not later than 180 days after enactment of this Act.
U-233 Disposition Program.-The agreement provides $45,000,000 to expedite the removal and disposition of special nuclear materials stored in Building 3019 due to continued safety and security risks. The Department is directed to discontinue funding under OR-0011Z Downblend of U-233 in Building 3019 and to establish a new funding line to provide for the costs of storage and transport of materials, maintenance of Building 3019, maintenance and upgrade of Building 2026, and any other costs that are needed to support ultimate disposition of the legacy materials. Not later than 90 days after enactment of this Act, the Department shall submit to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate a life-cycle cost estimate for the U -233 Disposition Program that supports removal of all U -233 from Oak Ridge by 2019 and that includes an analysis of the cost and schedule implications if the Department cannot dispose of the Consolidated Edison Uranium Solidification Project material at the Nevada National Security Site as previously planned.
Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility.-The agreement provides $4,608,000 for project engineering and design for a water treatment system to reduce mercury concentrations in Upper East Fork Poplar Creek.
Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP).-The agreement provides $690,000,000 for WTP within existing reprogramming controls. The Department is directed to request approval from the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate prior to restarting any construction activities on the Pretreatment Facility. The Department is further directed to ensure that new project scope supporting direct feed and commissioning and startup activities are separately identified in the budget request and executed in accordance with DOE 0 413.3B, consistent with project management best practices.
Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF).-The agreement provides $125,000,000 for SWPF, including commissioning, startup, and Other Project Costs. The Department is directed to fund all supporting commissioning and startup activities within SWPF project funding, consistent with the original approved project scope, and to ensure those activities are executed in accordance with DOE O 413.3B.
Omnibus Spending Bill Sails Through Senate; Headed for Obama's Signature
National Journal
January 16, 2014
The Senate overwhelmingly passed the 12-part omnibus spending bill 72-26 on Thursday, which will fund the government through the end of September. The $1.1 trillion package sailed through the Senate and heads next to President Obama's desk for his signature.
The bill, crafted by Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and her House counterpart Harold Rogers, R-Ky., allocates $1.012 trillion in discretionary funding to various departments and agencies, while also providing overseas contingency funding. Significantly, the bill prevents another government shutdown, slated for midnight on Saturday.
The omnibus faced criticism from outside conservative groups for failing to further reduce federal spending and for a rushed process. Congress passed the bill on Thursday night, fewer than 72 hours after the 1,582-page legislation was initially released to members.
But within the halls of Congress, complaints about the bill were scarce and often minor. Following last October's fiscal crisis, the appetite for another federal shutdown was meager, and arguments over major policy items that could have derailed the omnibus--including over the Affordable Care Act and abortion--were left for another day.
It also provides a partial fix for the controversial cuts to military pensions that were included in the December budget agreement. The omnibus eliminates those cuts for both disabled veterans and for recipients of survivor's benefits.
Now that the bill has passed both chambers, affected departments and agencies can begin the work of subtracting from their new spending figures the amount of funds that they have already used up since the fiscal year began last October. The omnibus affects funding for everything from federal food safety inspections to NASA to modernizing Navy ships.
The Defense Department faces the most difficult task, having lost billions of dollars in fiscal 2014 from its 2013 allocation, though the omnibus does provide more cash for the department than it would have had under sequestration.
The bill, crafted by Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and her House counterpart Harold Rogers, R-Ky., allocates $1.012 trillion in discretionary funding to various departments and agencies, while also providing overseas contingency funding. Significantly, the bill prevents another government shutdown, slated for midnight on Saturday.
The omnibus faced criticism from outside conservative groups for failing to further reduce federal spending and for a rushed process. Congress passed the bill on Thursday night, fewer than 72 hours after the 1,582-page legislation was initially released to members.
But within the halls of Congress, complaints about the bill were scarce and often minor. Following last October's fiscal crisis, the appetite for another federal shutdown was meager, and arguments over major policy items that could have derailed the omnibus--including over the Affordable Care Act and abortion--were left for another day.
It also provides a partial fix for the controversial cuts to military pensions that were included in the December budget agreement. The omnibus eliminates those cuts for both disabled veterans and for recipients of survivor's benefits.
Now that the bill has passed both chambers, affected departments and agencies can begin the work of subtracting from their new spending figures the amount of funds that they have already used up since the fiscal year began last October. The omnibus affects funding for everything from federal food safety inspections to NASA to modernizing Navy ships.
The Defense Department faces the most difficult task, having lost billions of dollars in fiscal 2014 from its 2013 allocation, though the omnibus does provide more cash for the department than it would have had under sequestration.
Senate Panels Advance Nomination of Elizabeth M. Robinson to be undersecretary of Energy and Madelyn R. Creedon to be Principal Deputy Administrator, NNSA
This week, two nominees for senior DOE and NNSA positions came one step closer to confirmation. On January 16, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved Dr. Elizabeth M. Robinson to be Under Secretary for Management and Performance, a newly created position that will oversee EM. That same day, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved Madelyn R. Creedon to be Principal Deputy Administrator, NNSA.
As a final step before confirmation, the full Senate must approve the nominees.
A video of the Robinson hearing is available here.
A video of the Creedon hearing is available here.
2015 US Budget Proposal Not Likely Until Late February
Defense News
January 6, 2014
WASHINGTON -- The US government is not likely to unveil its 2015 spending plan until late February at the earliest, according to budget experts.
The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is preparing to send the Pentagon its 2015 "passback guidance" as soon as this week, according to DoD officials and defense observers. The guidance, which includes specific budget and policy marching orders, is one of the final steps before the Obama administration sends its 2015 spending plan to Congress.
After receiving the passback guidance, a final round of negotiations will commence between OMB and DoD on specific items within the budget.
Historically, the negotiations during this period center around the budget's top line, the total dollar amount allotted for DoD. Since the bipartisan budget deal -- approved by lawmakers and signed by President Obama late last month -- caps DoD's 2015 base budget request at $521 billion, top line negotiations should not be an issue this time around, said Gordon Adams, who ran defense budgeting at OMB during the Clinton administration and is now a professor at American University.
Adams and others predict the 2015 budget proposal will head to Capitol Hill in late February. An OMB spokesman was not immediately available for comment as to the timing of the administration's budget release.
In typical federal budget cycles, which have been virtually nonexistent over the past four years, OMB sends passback guidance in November around the Thanksgiving holiday.
DoD was expecting its 2015 passback guidance from OMB around Christmas, but it was likely delayed due to the late passage of the bipartisan budget deal, according to several sources.
The federal budget is typically sent to Congress the first week of February. Last year, the Pentagon submitted its 2014 budget proposal in April. That spending plan was $52 billion above federal spending caps, known as sequestration.
This year, the Pentagon internally prepared four budgets for a range of top line options. DoD officials are preparing to submit a modified version of the "Alt POM," the budget prepared for sequestration-level budget cuts. Officials will buy back items with the additional $9 billion received under the two-year budget deal.
One item that could be debated during the negotiations between OMB and DoD is the size of the Afghanistan war budget, which is not included under the Pentagon's spending cap. DoD requested more than $80 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) in 2014. That number was only slightly down from the 2013 OCO budget of $89 billion despite the number of troops in Afghanistan being halved.
Since the US has not finalized a status of forces agreement with Afghanistan post 2014, the 2015 OCO submission could be delayed beyond release of the rest of the federal budget, said Todd Harrison, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments think tank in Washington.
Last year, DoD released its OCO budget proposal one month after the base budget.
A force of about 8,000 to 10,000 troops should cost about $20 billion or less, Harrison said. Still, he is expecting an OCO budget request in excess of $40 billion since a lot of training is funded through the separate war accounts.
Treasury Secretary Warns U.S. Likely to Hit Debt Ceiling in February
National Journal
January 16, 2014
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew warned lawmakers on Thursday that a final deadline for raising the nation's borrowing limit is likely to arrive next month, not in March, which he had previously said was a possibility.
"I think that if Congress is looking at the numbers the way we are--we have the best data--they would see that they would be looking more at the end of February than any time in March," Lew said Thursday at a discussion hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations.
The debt ceiling, which was suspended in October, will be reinstated and reached again on Feb. 7, at which point the Treasury Department can use special authority--so-called extraordinary measures--to prevent the nation from defaulting. These measures can briefly allow the United States to continue to meet its obligations until a later date, the "drop-dead" deadline. At that point, the nation risks default.
Lew's emphasis on February in his Thursday remarks was a departure from a letter he wrote to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, last month. In that letter, the Treasury secretary said his agency's authority would likely last through "late February or early March."
The unpredictable nature of tax season makes it tough to forecast the exact date when Treasury will exhaust these special measures. On Wednesday, Morgan Stanley economists estimated the drop-dead date could arrive as late as June. "We see it as a close call whether this would last only until late March or further into the spring, which would be largely determined by how strong the tax-refund season is," they wrote in a note to clients.
Lew, for his part, criticized the "Washington parlor sport" of guessing when the nation will hit the limit, and he urged lawmakers to act to raise it "as quickly as possible."
"The buildup to the last minute causes damage," he said.
"I think that if Congress is looking at the numbers the way we are--we have the best data--they would see that they would be looking more at the end of February than any time in March," Lew said Thursday at a discussion hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations.
The debt ceiling, which was suspended in October, will be reinstated and reached again on Feb. 7, at which point the Treasury Department can use special authority--so-called extraordinary measures--to prevent the nation from defaulting. These measures can briefly allow the United States to continue to meet its obligations until a later date, the "drop-dead" deadline. At that point, the nation risks default.
Lew's emphasis on February in his Thursday remarks was a departure from a letter he wrote to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, last month. In that letter, the Treasury secretary said his agency's authority would likely last through "late February or early March."
The unpredictable nature of tax season makes it tough to forecast the exact date when Treasury will exhaust these special measures. On Wednesday, Morgan Stanley economists estimated the drop-dead date could arrive as late as June. "We see it as a close call whether this would last only until late March or further into the spring, which would be largely determined by how strong the tax-refund season is," they wrote in a note to clients.
Lew, for his part, criticized the "Washington parlor sport" of guessing when the nation will hit the limit, and he urged lawmakers to act to raise it "as quickly as possible."
"The buildup to the last minute causes damage," he said.
Corker calls for 'appropriate resources' to modernize nuke arsenal
Frank Munger's Atomic City underground
January 12, 2014
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker is calling on the Obama administration to put plenty of funding in the FY 2015 budget request to move forward with the modernization of the nation's nuclear arsenal.
Corker issued a statement after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel expressed support for maintaining a strong nuclear deterrent despite the enormous cost.
Here's what Corker had to say:
"As Secretary Hagel emphasized the importance of appropriate resources to modernize our nation's nuclear arsenal, I urge the Obama administration to match this level of commitment with the funding necessary in the 2015 budget request so modernization remains on track. To date their track record has been inconsistent. I recognize the need to address the nation's spending problems, but I believe we can meet this challenge while also ensuring a safe and reliable nuclear deterrent, which is vital for U.S. and global security."
Corker issued a statement after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel expressed support for maintaining a strong nuclear deterrent despite the enormous cost.
Here's what Corker had to say:
"As Secretary Hagel emphasized the importance of appropriate resources to modernize our nation's nuclear arsenal, I urge the Obama administration to match this level of commitment with the funding necessary in the 2015 budget request so modernization remains on track. To date their track record has been inconsistent. I recognize the need to address the nation's spending problems, but I believe we can meet this challenge while also ensuring a safe and reliable nuclear deterrent, which is vital for U.S. and global security."
Office of Legacy Management Program Update; 4th Quarter 2013
Office of Legacy Management
Inside this Update: Agencies Assist LM to Develop Reports on Defense-Related Uranium Mines; DOE Responds to Public Input on the Draft ULP PEIS; Groundwater Remedy Is Evaluated at the Mound, Ohio, Site; Visitors Learn About the History of LM's Unique Facility in Puerto Rico; German Remediation Offi cials Benchmarking Visit; International Atomic Energy Agency Accepts Consultation from LM; Environmental Justice Activities; and more.
The Program Update newsletter is produced every quarter and highlights major activities and events that occurred across the DOE complex during that period of time
The Program Update newsletter is produced every quarter and highlights major activities and events that occurred across the DOE complex during that period of time
Aging waste tank cracks at SRS
The State
January 9, 2014
Savannah River Site officials recently discovered a new crack in a tank that contains some of the most dangerous nuclear waste in South Carolina, a state now embroiled in a tank cleanup dispute with the federal government.
The cracked bin is not leaking atomic material, but its condition underscores the need to speed the cleanup of dozens of high-level waste tanks at SRS, state officials and environmentalists said Thursday afternoon. The aging Cold War-era tanks hold about 36 million gallons of the deadly waste.
"Those tanks are wearing out and we have got to get the waste out of them,'' said Karen Patterson, chairwoman of the Governor's Nuclear Advisory Council.
Patterson's comments are the latest in a war of words by state officials about the federal government's commitment to cleaning up SRS, a 310-square-mile atomic weapons site near Aiken with a more than 50-year legacy of environmental contamination.
The biggest concerns are the waste tanks, which state regulator Shelly Wilson said present the "single largest environmental threat in the state of South Carolina.''
Recent federal budget cuts, as well as the federal government shutdown last fall, have left less money and people available for the tank cleanup. A major factory intended to help with the cleanup is behind schedule for completion. Meanwhile, more than 400 cleanup workers were laid off last September because of money shortages.
SRS officials said the amount of waste being cleaned out of tanks is expected to be less this year than in past years. Because of what the state Department of Health and Environmental Control says are unacceptable delays, the agency has threatened to fine the federal government more than $150 million dollars if the cleanup doesn't get moving.
A Department of Energy official told the council Thursday the agency is doing its best. Some news reports suggest the cleanup could be delayed from the 2020s to the 2040s.
Terry Spears, the department's assistant manager for waste disposition, also said the crack isn't the first on the tank, but it is high enough on the side of the huge canister that nuclear waste won't seep out. At one point in the 1990s, federal inspection reports showed that more than one-fourth of the waste tanks have cracked, rusted or leaked. Waste in the tanks could quickly kill anyone exposed directly to the material.
Shelly Wilson, DHEC's federal facilities liaison, said the cleanup could be years behind schedule without attention. "The sad thing is that right now we know that those (cleanup) milestones are in jeopardy,'' beginning possibly as soon as next year, she said.
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