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February
3, 2003
Secretary
of Energy Unveils DOE '04 Budget
Budget Reflects Commitment to Advance Energy and
National Security through Science, Technology
and Environmental Stewardship
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Secretary of Energy Spencer
Abraham today released the Department of Energy's
(DOE) Fiscal Year 2004 budget request to Congress,
calling it a "good reflection on the Energy
Department, its programs and its people."
Abraham said that the $23.4 billion budget request
demonstrates that the Administration and the Congress
recognize the critical contribution the department
makes to a peaceful and prosperous future by helping
to secure our national security, our energy security
and our position as the world leader in science
and technology.
The department's budget has increased nearly 25
percent when compared to the last budget presented
by the previous administration in fiscal year
?01.
"The President demands results and we have
delivered," Secretary Abraham said in remarks
he made this afternoon. "We have proven our
worth by taking huge strides in carrying out our
national security mission by maintaining our nuclear
stockpile, rebuilding the capabilities of our
defense complex, and preventing the spread of
nuclear weapons and materials."
Noting that the budget proposal reflects, and
is intended to address, the critical challenges
the Energy Department will face in the coming
decades, Abraham said he has charted a course
that emphasizes DOE's critical contributions to
the Nation's national security and provides far-reaching
solutions to America's energy problems.
These priorities are to maintain the nuclear stockpile;
expand non-proliferation activities into a more
comprehensive program; accelerate the environmental
cleanup program; develop the 21st century's cutting
edge advanced fuel cell and alternative energy
technologies program; maintain coal as a major,
low-cost, domestically produced energy resource
through President Bush's Coal Research Initiative;
build and maintain a stable and effective national
defense program and continue the department's
leadership to ensure nuclear power remains a key
energy resource; and, build a scientific research
capability second to none.
Secretary Abraham also discussed the department's
efforts to devote resources to revise and accelerate
cleanup plans for 18 DOE sites; pursue private
sector partnerships to develop technologies and
processes under the Clean Coal Initiative to take
advantage of this domestic energy resource; develop
a carbon sequestration research program; and overcome
daunting challenges of fuel cell costs, hydrogen
production and on-board hydrogen storage as part
of the FreedomCAR and FreedomFuel initiatives.
Safeguarding and securing DOE's nuclear facilities,
materials and information, and protection of our
employees in a post 9/11 environment remains one
of the Administration's top priorities. As such,
the department's safeguards and security funding
in the FY 2004 request is $1.2 billion, an increase
of $179 million over the FY 2003 request. Within
the amount requested, $586 million will support
activities to safeguard DOE's NNSA nuclear weapons
facilities, $357 million will support activities
that protect the Cold War nuclear waste material
being cleaned up at the department's environmental
cleanup sites, $238 million will fund the security
of the department complex-wide, and $48.1 million
will support continued safeguards and security
activities at the department's scientific laboratories
and facilities. A portion of these expenses will
be recovered through charges to non-DOE customers
performing work at DOE laboratories.
Funding priorities for the FY 2004 budget highlights
are as follows:
National Nuclear Security Administration ($8.8
billion for FY 2004)
The FY 2004 Weapons Activities request of $6.4
billion, is a 9.1 percent increase over the FY
2003 request. One of Secretary Abraham's highest
priorities is to certify, with the Secretary of
Defense, the safety, security and reliability
of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. President
Bush's budget request will permit NNSA to continue
on the Life Extension Program for active nuclear
warheads in our stockpile -- W87, B61, W76 and
W80. The request also provides continued funding
for stockpile stewardship that includes $320 million
to support the manufacture of certifiable plutonium
pits, the trigger in a nuclear weapon, while allowing
NNSA to proceed with a conceptual design for a
modern pit manufacturing facility.
The budget proposes $467 million for the Inertial
Confinement Fusion Ignition and High Yield Campaign,
including the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
National Ignition Facility (NIF), one of the major
tools to help model and simulate nuclear explosions
to ensure the safety and reliability of the weapons
in the stockpile. NIF achieved a major milestone
in December 2002, activating the first of four
of the 192 laser beams ahead of schedule. The
request also includes $751 million for the Advanced
Simulation and Computing program to provide super
computing platforms and simulation capabilities
needed to model and understand weapon processes,
components and systems.
As part of the administration's commitment to
restore, rebuild and revitalize the physical infrastructure
of the nuclear weapons complex, the budget requests
$265 million for the Facilities and Infrastructure
Recapitalization Program.
The FY 2004 Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation request
of $1.3 billion, is a 30 percent increase over
the FY 2003 request. The increase provides for
the start of construction of a mixed oxide (MOX)
fuel fabrication facility in the U.S. and U.S.
efforts to assist Russia with the start of construction
of an industrial scale MOX fuel fabrication facility.
Additionally, the request includes $30 million
for implementation of a new program to accelerate
nuclear materials disposition efforts in support
of the 2002 G-8 Summit initiatives to purchase
Russian highly enriched uranium (HEU) above the
amounts in the 1993 U.S./Russia HEU Purchase Agreement.
The budget request also includes $768 million
to meet responsibilities for all naval nuclear
propulsion work, including new efforts to develop
and deploy a new design reactor core.
Energy ($2.5 billion for FY 2004, an increase
of $9.0 million above FY 2003)
The department has requested $169 million to continue
implementing FreedomCAR to ultimately provide
a full range of emissions-free, affordable cars
and light trucks. With the proposed total funding
of $181 million for FreedomFuel, the department
will be able to lead in the design and development
of the tools, techniques and infrastructure needed
to create a new energy future.
The department has requested $288 million to fulfill
the President's commitment to increase funding
for the Low-Income Weatherization Assistance Program
over 10 years in order to cut energy costs for
1.2 million low-income families, while at the
same time conserving energy.
The department has allocated $321 million to continue
the President's Coal Research Initiative, an effort
that is developing innovative technologies to
help meet the Administration's Clear Skies and
Global Climate Change goals. Included is $130
million that will be used for the second round
of competition to select industry-proposed clean
coal power projects.
Also included in the coal research budget is $62
million to continue advancing the science and
technology of carbon sequestration, a 40 percent
increase from last year's request. In FY 2004,
the department will begin implementing a regional
sequestration partnership program announced last
November by Secretary Abraham. Through these partnerships,
the federal government will join with state agencies,
universities, environmental organizations, and
private companies to determine the best regional
approach for permanently capturing and storing
greenhouse gases.
This year's budget also includes $38 million for
the Nuclear Power 2010 program, which is designed
to pave the way for the near-term deployment of
new power plants in the U.S. through cost-shared
demonstration of untested regulatory processes
and cost-shared development of advance nuclear
power plant technologies.
Approximately $10 million is allocated to the
Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems program that
focuses on the development of advanced reactor
nuclear energy technologies for the next generation
of nuclear power plants. These advanced technologies
are poised to play an important role in meeting
electric and other non-electric needs such as
hydrogen fuel production.
The department is also requesting an additional
$4 million through the Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative
to accelerate redevelopment of advanced systems
to generate hydrogen using nuclear energy.
The department will also reorganize and focus
its nuclear fuel technology efforts to create
new, proliferation-resistant technologies that
will stretch the energy potential of the world's
nuclear fuel resources. This work will be accomplished
through the new Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative
for which the department is requesting $63 million.
Environment ($8 billion for FY 2004, an increase
of $354 million over FY 2003 request)
The department is firmly committed to accelerate
the cleanup of legacy waste in FY 2004. The budget
request of $7.2 billion for Environmental Management,
an increase of $361 million over the FY 2003 requests,
reflects that commitment. Over the past year,
the department has worked very closely with the
states, federal regulators, and the general public
to establish strategies and prepare detailed performance
management plans for 18 of the 39 remaining DOE
cleanup sites.
The budget request also allocates $90 million
to begin design, construction and operation of
two existing gaseous diffusion plants (one at
the Paducah, Ky., site and one at the Portsmouth,
Ohio, site), to convert and dispose of depleted
uranium hexafluoride (DUF6).
In an effort to realign program activities that
will better support the department's long-term
mission, a new Office of Legacy Management has
been formed. The office has responsibility for
post-cleanup activities and will administer both
the department's human and physical resource post-closure
obligations at closed sites.
The President's recommendation and Congress' approval
of Yucca Mountain, Nev., as the Nation's high-level
nuclear waste repository was a step forward in
advancing the department's goal to ensure the
safe and secure disposition of dangerous nuclear
materials. The budget request maintains the FY
2003 level of $591 million for the department's
repository program. This funding will enable DOE
to complete work needed for a license application
to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2004 and
develop transportation capabilities needed to
initiate repository operations by 2010.
The budget also includes $138 million for the
Office of Environment, Safety, and Health and
$15 million for the Office of Worker and Community
Transition.
Office of Science ($3.3 billion for FY 2004, an
increase of $64 million above FY 2003 request)
The request for the Office of Science includes
$197 million, an increase of $64 million over
the FY 2003 request, to support the revolution
of nano-science research, the study of matter
at the atomic and molecular level, which will
benefit every aspect of society. The U.S., through
this effort, will lead the world in the area of
nano-science. Within this amount, the department
will design and construct five new nano-science
research centers.
In this budget, the department requested $173.5
million for the Advanced Scientific Computing
Research (ASCR) program. The ASCR program's goal
is to foster and support fundamental research
in advanced scientific computing and provide the
high performance computational and networking
tools that enable the department to succeed in
its science, energy, environmental quality and
national security missions. Within Biological
and Environmental Research, the Genomes to Life
program which funds research to address energy,
environmental, and national security needs, continues
to expand from $34.5 million to $59 million in
FY 2004, as a research program on the leading
edge of biology.
The FY 2004 budget request reflects the transfer
of several activities to the newly established
Homeland Security Department. The transfer includes
activities relating to chemical/biological R&D,
nuclear smuggling, national security, energy security
and assurance, and nuclear threat assessment capability
and federal administrative support to build the
new department.
The transfer of these highly important activities
will not impact the department's mission but rather
enhance the National Strategy for Homeland Security.
Other related homeland security activities will
continue to exist at DOE to ensure the Nation's
continued security.
The entire FY 2004 budget can be accessed via
the internet at http://www.mbe.doe.gov/budget/04budget/.
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