The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy would get a cash infusion for its advanced reactor development program and support for consent-based siting for a permanent waste repository would begin after Sept. 30, if the 2022 budget request rolled out Friday became law.
The request calls for $370 million for the Office of Nuclear Energy’s (ONE) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, according to a document published by the Office of Management and Budget. That figure is about 48% higher than the 2021 advanced reactor budget of $250 million. DOE has since inauguration day offered public support for the program as part of Biden’s broader clean energy and climate agenda.
ONE is also requesting $369 million for “fuel cycle R&D,” up around 19% from about $309 million in 2021.
ONE overall would get some $1.85 billion, or 23% more than the 2021 budget of about $1.55 billion.
The Biden administration also proposes to credit existing nuclear power plants for electricity generation as part of its American Jobs Plan. The budget request seeks $750 million for that program in fiscal year 2022.
Meanwhile, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which regulates civilian nuclear power plants and the waste they create, would receive nearly $890 million, under the 2022 Biden budget: some 5% more than the 2021 appropriation of about $845 million. That includes some $14 million in 2022 and $13.5 million in 2021, respectively, for the agency’s inspector general.
At deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor neither the Department of Energy nor the NRC had published their 2022 budget justification documents, which will include detailed funding proposals for individual programs at the agencies.
Those details could include the Biden administration’s specific plans for so-called consent-based siting of a permanent nuclear waste repository to replace the proposed Yucca Mountain repository. The administration has said it will not build a repository at Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., even though the site remains the only congressionally authorized location for permanent nuclear-waste disposal.
