Steven Mufson reports that new administration budget proposal would boost Energy Department spending on managing the nation nuclear waste stockpile and reviving the controversial Yucca Mountain storage facility for nuclear power plant waste but would slash spending on a host of science and climate areas.
The budget would cut spending overall by $1.7 billion, or 5.6% from current levels, to $28 billion. But the money is redistributed. The National Nuclear Security Administration budget would grow 11.3% while the rest of the Energy Department programs would be cut by 17.9%.
The Office of Science would lose $900 million of its just-over $5 billion. The office supports research at more than 300 universities and 10 of the 17 national labs.
The budget would drop programs such as the Weatherization Assistance Program, which provides grants to states and some Indian tribes to improve energy efficiency for low-income families, and the State Energy Program, which gives grants to states.
The Office of Management and Budget said the private sector is better positioned to finance disruptive energy research and development and to commercialize innovative technologies. The proposal would also slice $2 billion in unspecified cuts from other offices.
More than half of the Energy Department budget goes to maintaining the U.S. nuclear stockpile and cleaning up waste left by nuclear weapons research and production. The president would provide $6.5 billion for this program.
The Yucca Mountain storage facility, designed to store commercial nuclear waste underground for 1 million years, was dropped during the Obama administration, but is now moving ahead with Yucca, which is supported by the Nuclear Energy Institute, a nuclear energy trade group.
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