Energy Spending Set for 2006

House and Senate conferees have cleared the way for passage of a fiscal 2006 spending bill that includes $24.3 billion for the Department of Energy, $76.5 million above the amount requested by the White House, but $129 million less than the enacted fiscal 2005 level.

Funding is set at $500 million for the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, in Nevada, $77 million below last year’s level. The proposed facility is designed to store up to 77,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste. But the project is behind schedule and will not meet DOE’s 2010 target date for opening.

Spent nuclear fuel is now stored at 129 sites around the country. Language is included in the bill directing DOE to launch a spent nuclear fuel recycling program and to set up a competition to determine if there are communities or states that want to host an interim recycling reprocessing facility.

The bill provides $6.19 billion for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management—which oversees the cleanup of nuclear weapons production sites—and $3.63 billion for the department’s Office of Science, including $290 million for domestic fusion research.