The Senate this week proposed shifting federal funding for the Department of Energy’s interim storage inquiry into the government’s nuclear fuel cycle account, as the White House requested, according to budget documents published this week.
The proposed energy and water appropriations act would provide about $1.76 billion for civilian nuclear power and waste programs at the Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) — around $110 million more than the 2022 omnibus spending package, but about $25 million less than the House’s proposed budget of around $1.8 billion. Both chambers’ nuclear power spending proposals are up compared with the Joe Biden administration’s 2023 budget request of around $1.67 billion.
Both budget proposals also include increases for DOE’s advanced nuclear development program and fuel cycle research and development, among others.
If it became law, the Senate committee’s fiscal year 2023 DOE budget would provide about $40 million for NE’s Integrated Waste Management Systems subprogram under the office’s fuel cycle R&D account, according to a bill report published Thursday. That is less than the $53 million or so the House approved in its own version of the energy spending package, which the lower chamber passed last week, but it’s an increase of around $22 million from the $18 million Congress appropriated the subprogram in fiscal 2022.
The bills appeared to go along with a book keep change proposed by the Biden administration that would move funding for DOE’s ongoing interim storage inquiry under the fuel cycle R&D account and out of the Nuclear Waste Disposal subprogram, where it had historically been appropriated.
The upper chamber proposed roughly $10 million for DOE’s nuclear waste disposal account, a decrease of around $17 million year-over-year from fiscal 2022. The agency’s interim storage inquiry has, in previous years, been funded under that subprogram.
It’s the first time that both chambers of Congress have played ball on such a request — the White House made a similar request in the precious fiscal year that didn’t survive the appropriations process.
The Senate’s spending bill directs DOE to use funds in the fuel cycle R&D account “to move forward under existing authority to identify a site for a Federal interim storage facility” using a consent-based process. That language is more or less the same in the House-side spending package.
Meanwhile, the Senate recommended around $911 million, as requested, for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The civilian nuclear regulator usually recuperates most of its desired funding in licensing fees and, according to the bill report, should collect around $777 million from licensees, leaving its net appropriation at roughly $134 million.
The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, the government’s independent waste management technical auditor, would be allocated about $4 million in fiscal 2023 under the Senate’s proposed spending plan.
As of Friday morning, the Senate Appropriations Committee had yet to schedule debate on the proposed spending package.
