Senate appropriators boost funding for plutonium, uranium production facilities

Nearly $19 billion is included in the Senate Appropriations Committee’s 2024 spending bill for National Nuclear Security Administration nuclear-weapon programs, with funding boosts for planned facilities that will process plutonium and uranium for refurbished nuclear weapons.

The Appropriations Committee began marking up the Energy And Water Development Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations Bill Thursday morning. The legislation contains $18.8 billion for NNSA weapons activities. That is a $1.7 billion increase over the current fiscal year and roughly in line with the White House’s request. 

A companion spending bill the House Appropriations Committee passed on June 22 has a little more than $19 billion for weapons activities. The Senate Appropriations Committee had not released its detailed bill report as of Thursday morning.

Though the House and Senate committees each agree on higher-than-requested funding for the planned plutonium pit facility at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the House recommended more funding. Neither committee matched the 2023 budget for the facility. 

The chambers also differed on whether to give NNSA more money than it requested for the Uranium Processing Facility at the  Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., where cost overruns have drawn the ire of appropriators.

Within the Senate committee’s overall weapons appropriation is roughly $1 billion for plutonium pit production at Savannah River: about $142 million more than requested, $230 million below the 2023 appropriation and $128 million less than what House appropriators recommended.

Meanwhile, for the Uranium Processing Facility, the Senate committee proposed some $760 million, about even with the request and nearly $450 million lower than what their House counterparts approved, according to a bill summary published July 20. 

In June, a Democratic appropriator from each chamber sent the NNSA a sternly worded letter objecting to the agency’s plans to make up for cost overruns at the Uranium Processing Facility by shuffling funds into the project from other programs.