ECA Update: Senate Appropriators to markup energy & water bill; NNSA to compete $36B LANL contract; & more

Published: Tue, 07/18/17

ECA Update: July 18, 2017
 
BUDGET & APPROPRIATIONS
- Senate to Markup FY2018 Energy & Water Appropriations Bill

 
BUDGET & APPROPRIATIONS
Senate to Markup FY2018 Energy & Water Appropriations Bill
ECA Staff
July 18, 2017
The Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee will be marking up its draft appropriations bill today. The draft bill text has not yet been released, but audio from today's markup will be webcast HERE. The markup will take place this afternoon at 2:30PM EDT in Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 138. 

The full Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to markup the draft legislation on Thursday, July 20, alongside the FY18 Agriculture bills. The markup will take place at 10:30AM EDT in Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 106. 
 
CONTRACTING & ACQUISITION
NNSA preps to compete potential $36B Los Alamos lab management contract
Washington Technology 
July 17, 2017
The National Nuclear Security Administration is getting ready to compete an estimated $36.6 billion contract in search of a new manager of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

NNSA posted a draft request for proposals July 12 with a response deadline of July 26. Deltek data indicates an anticipated solicitation release date of September this year with an award to follow in June 2018 and the current contract expires three months later.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is one of three designated national laboratories in the U.S. that holds responsibility over the U.S. nuclear weapon stockpile’s state and health.  >>Continue reading
 
STORAGE & DISPOSITION
Opinion: Put Yucca Mountain to work. The nation needs it.
The Washington Post
July 15, 2017
Energy Secretary Rick Perry traveled to Capitol Hill last month, asking Congress for $28 billion in funding for everything from nuclear weapons to clean-coal research. Yet one of the most controversial elements in his department’s budget proposal was a request for a relatively tiny $120 million — to restart work on Nevada’s Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site.

Congress decided in the 1980s that Yucca was to be the permanent home of the country’s large and increasing pile of spent nuclear fuel. In a forbidding desert landscape about 100 miles outside Las Vegas, the site would appear to be an ideal choice for an unbreachable underground vault. The federal government spent more than $15 billion studying the place. Just a couple of years ago, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission found that the facility would be technically sound, considering everything from seismic activity to accidental human intrusion, on time scales of up to a million years. Locals in Nye County, which would stand to benefit from employment related to the site, are on board. >>Continue reading
 
MANHATTAN PROJECT NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK
Los Alamos Museum Hosts Exhibit On Manhattan Project
KRWG
July 13, 2017
LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) — The Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos is slated to host a new multimedia exhibit on the Manhattan Project.

The interactive exhibit, Manhattan on the Mesa: Manhattan Project Properties at Los Alamos, opens Saturday and tells the story of Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists working on the world's first atomic bomb.

New Mexico Highlands University students developed the multimedia exhibit that features 3-D models, videos, virtual reality, and graphic panels. >>Continue reading
 
NUCLEAR ENERGY
Gov’t Red Tape Costs Every Nuclear Plant $63 Million Annually
Daily Caller
July 11, 2017
Red tape and government bureaucracy is killing the U.S. nuclear industry by costing the average power plant $63 million annually, according to a new study by the American Action Forum.

The study found that government regulations cost the nuclear industry $15.7 billion or about $219 million per power plant. Most of this cost was in complying with government regulations about the safe disposal of nuclear waste, but government mandated paperwork alone accounted for $63.3 million annually.

”Nuclear power faces growing regulatory hurdles that do not reflect the improving safety and innovation within the industry,” Philip Rossetti, an energy data analyst involved in the research, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “A good federal policy should be focused on addressing the more significant issues, like licensing a nuclear waste repository, rather than just doubling down on regulation.”  >>Continue reading
UPCOMING EVENTS
July 2017
18
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Markup of Energy & Water Bill
Washington, DC

More info here
 
July 2017
20
Senate Appropriations Committee Markup of Energy & Water Bill
Washington, DC
 
More info here
 
July 2017
20
EM Site-Specific Advisory Board, Paducah
Paducah, KY
 
More info here
 
July 2017
24-25
EM Site-Specific Advisory Board, Savannah River Site
Aiken, SC
 
More info here
 
July 2017
26
EM Site-Specific Advisory Board, Northern New Mexico
Santa Fe, NM
 
More info here
 
August 2017
8-9
Intermountain Energy Summitt
Idaho Falls, ID
 
More info here
 
August 2017
16-17
INVITATION ONLY
 
ECA Peer Exchange: Implementation of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park
Richland, WA
 
 
September 2017
5-7
Radwaste Summitt 2017
Summerlin, NV

More info here
 
September 2017
12-14
2017 National Cleanup Workshop
Alexandria, VA
 
More info here
 
September 2017
13
House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus Event
Washington, DC

 
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