The Senate this week passed the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), approving a larger-than-requested budget for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) that would not phase in until Congress reconciles competing appropriations bills produced by the full House and the Senate Appropriations Committee, neither of which provides the amount authorized by the NDAA.
The 2022 NDAA, which President Joe Biden had not signed at deadline Friday, authorizes $20.3 billion for the NNSA, or roughly $500 million above the request. It would allow for a bigger maintenance budget across the enterprise and more funding for the agency’s high energy density physics program, among other things. At deadline, federal agencies including the NNSA remained funded at 2021 levels through Feb. 18 under the second stopgap budget, or continuing resolution, of the 2022 fiscal year, which started Oct. 1.
The Department of Energy released a request for information this week about a congressionally mandated program to make uranium fuel enriched to nearly the threshold of highly enriched uranium available for advanced nuclear reactor demonstrations.
Written comments about the High Assay Low Enriched Uranium (HALEU) Availability Program are due by Jan. 13, the agency said.
A skilled labor force at the Y-12 National Security Complex could soon have a base of operations now that the National Nuclear Security Administration has purchased the LeMond Carbon Facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the agency said.
The agency acquired the facility through an option to purchase agreement, giving the Y-12 Development organization a way to move out of the 1940s-vintage buildings it has used as a base for years. The Development organization is a group of subject matter experts who can be assigned to the various ongoing missions at Y-12, the NNSA’s defense uranium hub and production site for nuclear weapons secondary stages.
It could cost between $70 billion and $80 billion in Australian dollars to build a fleet of eight nuclear-powered attack submarines, an Australian think tank estimated in a report published this week.
Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. in September announced a partnership called AUKUS, aimed at sharing naval nuclear propulsion with Canberra. The partners gave themselves until March 2023 to figure out the details of the arrangement.
