The U.S. Senate’s proposed Department of the Interior funding package provides $250,000 to develop a generic, technology-neutral standard for future high-level nuclear waste disposal facilities.

The goal is for the Environmental Protection Agency to use modern and international practices in creating new plans to store U.S. nuclear waste. This spring, the EPA had requested $635,000 to fund this work—but even the proposed $250,000 would help get the process moving.

So far, funding has been included only in the Senate’s version of the appropriations bill, but supporters hope it makes the final package when Senate and House lawmakers conference on the final fiscal year 2025 appropriations legislation this fall.

For more details, see the original story below from June 28.

New appropriations bills currently under review in the U.S. Congress include a significant funding boost for nuclear energy.

This week, ranking members of both the U.S. House and Senate released six fiscal year 2024 appropriations, including the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies bill that has nuclear energy funding for FY 2024.

La Grange Park, IL –A task force commissioned by the American Nuclear Society (ANS) issued an assessment of U.S. nuclear energy research and development funding needs for the 2020s. The study is a prospectus for appropriations as Congress and the Biden administration consider ways to support and expand America’s largest carbon-free energy technology, nuclear energy.

Congress voted to approve appropriations for fiscal year 2021 that includes $1.5 billion for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy.

The House Appropriations Committee yesterday released a draft of the fiscal year 2021 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies appropriations bill, calling for higher levels of funding for nuclear energy. The legislation would fund activities at the Departments of Energy and Interior, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and a number of related agencies, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.

Statement from the American Nuclear Society’s Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy on the draft FY 2021 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies funding bill issued by the House Appropriations Committee:

The U.S. Senate voted last week to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to S.4049, the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Debate on the legislation could take all this week, with hundreds of amendments already filed to the bill.

Nuclear to see more time in the limelight. Here are seven hearings this week to keep on your radar:

• Tuesday, March 3, 9:30 am EST: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing to examine the President's FY 2021 budget request for the Department of Energy. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette will provide testimony. To watch the hearing click here.

Yesterday afternoon Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette testified on the proposed FY2021 DOE budget before the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development (EWD). You can view the hearing here. Secretary Brouillette's next stop with the budget request will be before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) Committee on March 3.

This morning the White House released its FY2021 budget request. We don't expect federal agencies to issue their detailed budget requests—known as Congressional Justifications, or "CJ's"—for another week or two. In the meantime, here's what we know now:

Yesterday, Appropriators released a two minibus package of FY 2020 measures for House passage today. Senate leadership will then plan to hold votes to clear the funding legislation for Drumpf's signature before the Friday funding deadline