CRS reports give insight into DOE appropriations, R&D funding

CRS report gives insight into DOE appropriations, Congress proposes funding above requested levels

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) recently released a report on the FY2022 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill. The House of Representatives passed the bill on July 29 as part of a seven-bill minibus by a vote of 219-208. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the funding bill on August 4; the legislation currently awaits passage by the full Senate.

CRS reports detail funding levels for DOE

House and Senate-Committee bills
The bills approved by the House and the Senate Appropriations Committee would provide overall funding increases slightly above the Administration’s requested levels.

The House-passed version of the bill includes total funding of $56.21 billion, which is reduced by $2.98 billion in budget scorekeeping adjustments to $53.23 billion. DOE would receive $45.46 billion, which is $1.53 billion below the Administration’s request. NNSA would receive $20.16 billion in the House bill, $412 million above the Administration’s request.

The Senate Committee’s bill recommends a total of $56.42 billion, excluding emergency spending but including rescissions. That total is further reduced by budget scorekeeping adjustments to $53.63 billion. The legislation would give DOE $45.32 billion (excluding rescissions), which is $1.66 billion below the Administration FY2022 request. NNSA would receive $20.04 billion under the Senate committee bill, slightly above the request and slightly below the House amount.

Environmental Management
The House-passed bill includes $7.76 billion for EM, while the Senate Appropriations Committee recommended $7.71 billion. The budgetary components of the EM program are Defense Environmental Cleanup and Non-Defense Environmental Cleanup, both proposed by the Administration for an increase over their FY2021 enacted levels, and the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund, for which the Administration request includes an offset of $416 million.

The Administration’s proposed reduction of $104 million for cleanup of the Hanford (WA) nuclear site drew criticism from a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on DOE’s FY2022 budget request. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) told Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm that the DOE budget request for Hanford cleanup was at least $900 million below the amount needed for DOE to keep its commitments to state and federal environmental regulators. Granholm responded that DOE was negotiating within the Administration for additional funding.

The FY2022 request also includes a proposal to transfer management of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) from USACE to the Office of Legacy Management, the DOE office responsible for long-term stewardship of remediated sites. The transfer had also been proposed for FY2020 and FY2021; it was not approved by Congress. Neither the House-passed bill nor the Senate Appropriations Committee bill includes the proposed FUSRAP transfer.

Nuclear Energy
The FY2022 DOE budget justification calls NE “a key element of the Administration’s plan to put the United States on a path to net-zero emissions by 2050.” The Reactor Concepts program area comprises research on advanced reactors, including advanced small modular reactors, and research to enhance the “sustainability” of existing commercial light water reactors.

The Fuel Cycle Research and Development program includes generic research on nuclear waste management and disposal. The program is also developing sources of high-assay low enriched uranium (HALEU), in which uranium is enriched to between 5% and 20% in the fissile isotope U-235, for potential use in advanced reactors. HALEU would be required for several designs currently receiving cost shared support by DOE’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.

National Nuclear Security Administration
NNSA’s four main program areas, each with funding over $2 billion for FY21, include: Stockpile Management; Stockpile Production; Stockpile Research, Technology, and Engineering; and Infrastructure and Operations.

DOE, in coordination with NNSA, is requesting $33 million for a program authorized by the Energy Act of 2020 to provide HALEU for advanced reactors. Many advanced reactor technologies would require fuel made with HALEU. According to DOE, “This subprogram will work to make available small quantities of HALEU from limited DOE uranium inventories and leverage the HALEU enrichment demonstration capability in the short term, …and support the private sector in its building out of commercial HALEU production and supply chain capability in the U.S. for the long term.”

The House-passed bill includes nearly the full request for the two advanced reactor demonstrations and an additional $25 million for the five possible future demonstrations. The bill includes $33 million for HALEU availability. The Senate Appropriations Committee recommended the full request for the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program and $47 million for HALEU availability.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The NRC’s largest program is Nuclear Reactor Safety, which received the requested $477.4 million in both the House and Senate-Committee bills. The program is responsible for licensing and regulating the U.S. fleet of 93 power reactors, plus two under construction. NRC is also responsible for licensing and regulating nuclear waste facilities, such as the proposed underground nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, NV (for which no funding was requested or provided for FY21).

NRC is required by law to offset its total budget, excluding specified items, through fees charged to nuclear reactor owners and other holders of NRC licenses. Budget items excluded from fee recovery include prior-year balances, development of advanced reactor regulations, international activities, and nonsite-specific homeland security. As a result, NRC’s net appropriation request for FY22 is about 15% of the agency’s total budget.

Nuclear Waste Storage Pilot Program
The Senate Committee-approved bill includes language to establish a DOE pilot program for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. Priority would be given to spent fuel currently stored at closed nuclear plant sites. Any proposed storage facility would require agreement by the governor of the host state, as well as by units of local government and affected Indian tribes. Funding for the pilot program would be authorized from the Nuclear Waste Fund, subject to appropriation. Similar language has been included in previous years’ Energy and Water funding bills by the Senate Appropriations Committee but not enacted.

Both the House-passed and Senate committee bills include $20 million for nuclear waste interim storage planning and $7.5 million from the Nuclear Waste Fund for oversight activities related to the fund. The House bill also includes an unspecified amount of funding within the Nuclear Energy account for spent fuel transportation preparations, as part of an integrated waste management system.

CRS report tracks federal R&D funding, DOE gets second-largest increase

The CRS also recently released a report detailing proposed federal funding for research and development (R&D) programs included in the FY22 budget. The Biden Administration’s budget request includes approximately $171.3 billion for such programs; funding levels are provided by appropriations bills, which currently await passage by both chambers of Congress.

CRS reports on DOE R&D funding

DOE would receive, in dollar increases, the second largest increase in R&D, up $2.1 billion from the FY21 enacted level. DOE would be the primary federal funder of R&D facilities and equipment, accounting for 58.2% of total federal R&D facilities and equipment funding in the Administration’s budget request.

DOE Funding
The Administration’s budget request for DOE includes about $20.52 billion for R&D and related activities, including programs in three broad categories: science, national security, and energy. The version of the appropriations bill passed in the House of Representatives would provide about $19.38 billion.

The R&D funding request for the DOE Office of Science is $7.44 billion; the House bill would provide $7.32 billion. Following a reorganization of the Office in FY20, a new program in Isotope R&D and Production ($90 million requested) would support activities previously funded in Nuclear Physics, while a new program in Accelerator R&D and Production ($24 million requested) would support activities previously funded in High Energy Physics.

The request for DOE national security R&D is $5.25 billion, whereas the House bill would provide $5.40 billion. The requested level for Weapons Activities account for Stockpile Research, Technology, and Engineering would decrease compared to FY21, including decreases in Assessment Science and Inertial Confinement Fusion. Funding for Naval Reactors would increase by $177 million. Under the House bill, Weapons Activities and Assessment Science would receive the FY21 amount, while Inertial Confinement Fusion would receive a $5 million increase ($575 million). Naval Reactors would receive $6 million more than the Administration request ($1.87 billion). Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation R&D would receive $43 million more than the requested level ($715 million).

Requested funding for nuclear energy R&D would provide $7.83 billion, up $343 million from FY21, including increases of $120 million for advanced reactor demonstration and $100 million for the Versatile Test Reactor project. The House bill would provide $6.66 billion for nuclear energy R&D. Most programs in this category would receive more than in FY21, but less than the Administration request. The House bill would not fund the Versatile Test Reactor project.

To learn more about the federal budget, please visit the ECA Budget Tracker.