Most of DOE nuclear programs to be fully funded in FY-07 bill

Most of DOE nuclear programs to be fully funded in FY-07 bill

Washington (Platts)--17May2006

Most of the Department of Energy's nuclear energy programs would be fully
funded under the FY 2007 energy and water funding bill that the House
Appropriations Committee approved Wednesday.

DOE's Nuclear Power 2010 program, aimed at the near-term deployment of
advanced power reactors, would receive roughly $54 million, same as the budget
request. Funding for work on next-generation reactor designs as part of the
Generation IV program would match the budget request at $31.4 million.

The bill report earmarked $4 million of that allocation for fuel
development. It also told DOE that the committee expects future Gen IV
planning to be coordinated with DOE's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership
program, which is aimed in part at closing the nuclear fuel cycle in the US
and abroad. DOE's nuclear hydrogen initiative would receive $18.6 million,
same as the budget request.

DOE's fusion energy programs, including the International Thermonuclear
Experimental Reactor, would be funded at $319.9 million under the bill.

Lawmakers used the bill report to express their satisfaction with the
fact that DOE "finally requested sufficient funding for the US participation
in the [ITER] project without doing so at the expense of the domestic fusion
research activities or at the expense of other office of science programs."

DOE also would have to initiate the process of selecting and licensing
one or more interim storage sites under the funding bill.

It would fully fund the DOE waste program at the department's $544.5
million request and would provide an additional $30 million, which would not
be taken from the Nuclear Waste Fund, for interim storage of utility spent
fuel separate from any storage provided by DOE's Global Nuclear Energy
Partnership program.

The bill report said this storage facility or facilities could be sited
at DOE or other federal or private sites. It also indicated that lawmakers
want to see regional storage facilities and added that "if regional
consolidation is not feasible, the department should then explore
consolidation of spent fuel within states with high volumes of spent fuel."

---Elaine Hiruo, elaine_hiruo@platts.com

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