Government & Policy Roundup

The Department of Energy does not plan to submit a license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository before fiscal 2008, Paul M. Golan, acting director of DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, told a House appropriations subcommittee on March 15. He said the department will publish a new project schedule this summer.

NIH's National Center for Research Resources will provide $24 million over the next five years to the University of California, Irvine, for continued support of the Biomedical Informatics Research Network. The network involves 14 institutions and deals with integrating functional magnetic resonance imaging across multiple sites.

The Senate has confirmed Edwin G. Foulke Jr. as assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. Prior to his nomination last September, Foulke served as a partner with the law firm Jackson Lewis LLP in Greenville, S.C., where he represented industrial clients on health and safety issues.

The Department of Energy says it will fine Bechtel National $198,000 for violating the department's nuclear safety requirements during the design and construction of the Hanford Waste Treatment & Immobilization Plant in Washington state. Bechtel operates the facility for DOE.