ANS Nuclear Policy Wire October 2, 2018

October 2, 2018

New Fiscal Year, New NE FY 2019 began yesterday, and the Department of Energy is fully funded for the year. Having DOE funded for the start of the fiscal year is an accomplishment in and of itself, but the appropriations also include strong support for nuclear programs: The Office of Nuclear Energy has a budget of $1.33 billion, a 10% increase over FY 2018. Since FY 2015, NE's budget has risen by almost a half-billion dollars.    The budget for Reactor Concepts R&D is increasing 37% to $324 million, with $122 million for advanced reactor technologies and $22 million for completing the federal share of two performace-based advanced reactor concepts.    The Versatile Fast Test Reactor gets $65 million, a $30 million increase from FY 2018, to prepare for construction. Congress also just passed the Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act, which directs DOE to evaluate the need for a fast test reactor and complete work on the facility by 2025.    Check out the full budget for DOE here; we've highlighted NE, NNSA, and NRC for easy reading.