Senate provides generous DOE funding

Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a Department of Energy funding package of $24.7 billion, $650 million more than the President's request. It included increases in a wide range of programs, including those that support solar, biomass, clean coal, oil shale, basic science, and weapons. It also would increase funding for the President's proposed $250 million nuclear waste reprocessing program and would set up a new program to store commercial nuclear waste at federal sites for up to 25 years, until a nuclear waste fuel reprocessing program is established or the Yucca Mountain storage facility is built and licensed. Although this approach is championed by Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), an Appropriations Committee member and chairman of the Energy & Natural Resources Committee, it is in contrast to legislation approved in the House in May, which cut reprocessing funding by more than half. If these provisions remain in the appropriations bill passed by the full Senate, a heated debate between House and Senate in order to reach a compromise is likely.