In a rare public outing, Adm. James Caldwell, head of the U.S. Navy’s Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, is scheduled to address an industry banquet on Thursday near Washington.
Caldwell, the dual-hatted admiral responsible for both the Navy and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) nuclear-reactor programs, is the scheduled featured speaker for the closing banquet of the Naval Submarine League’s annual symposium.
The annual gathering of high-ranking Navy officials and industry bigwigs is on the slate for Wednesday and Thursday in Crystal City: the Pentagon’s neighborhood in Arlington County, Va.
Also scheduled for Thursday is a morning presentation from Rear Adm. Scott Pappano, program executive officer for the Columbia ballistic-missile submarine. The Navy plans to replace the current fleet of 14 Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines with 12 Columbia-class boats beginning in 2031. Margins on Columbia are tight, and bad welds last year by BWX Technologies on the boats’ common missile compartment tubes have put extra stress on the program.
The NNSA, through industry contractor BWXT, builds reactors for Navy warships and submarines. The agency’s Naval Nuclear Laboratory, split between upstate New York and Pennsylvania, conducts research and development for future naval reactors and reactor fuel.
The semiautonomous Energy Department agency’s Naval Reactors office had a roughly $1.8 billion budget for fiscal 2019. The White House requested about $1.65 billion for 2020. The House approved a 2020 DOE budget with a little less than that, while the Senate Appropriations Committee approved slightly more. The full Senate, though, has yet to approve any appropriations legislation for the budget year that began Oct. 1.
The Energy Department, and the rest of the federal government, is funded at 2019 levels under a continuing resolution that expires Nov. 21. The House has passed permanent 2020 appropriations bills, but the Senate has yet to do so. Democrats in the upper chamber have filibustered debate on a spending package containing energy and defense spending bills because the latter includes funding for President Donald Trump’s proposed southern border wall.
Without a permanent 2020 budget, Congress will have to pass another stop-gap around Thanksgiving. Trump this week would not commit to signing another short-term budget.
