In the September issue, we highlighted the Next Generation Nuclear Power (NGNP) Industry Alliance. Its primary purpose is to promote the development and commercialization of High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR) technologies. The SRSCRO has decided to join this Alliance. One of the propelling reasons is that these high temperature reactors present a very real and very exciting possibility for our region of the country. We have several local industrial heat users in South Carolina and Georgia that would greatly benefit from the price stability and environmental benefits of heat produced by this type of small modular reactor.

We are not alone in this belief, one that is shared by industry giant Dow Company. In the Dow 2012 Energy Plan for America, they "support the federal government's efforts to provide financial support to enable leadership in advancing development of new nuclear power technologies. One promising example is the High Temperature Gas Reactor (HTGR), which has the potential to produce synthetic fuels and feedstocks when combined with gasification of coal or other domestic carbon sources".

They point out "as the U.S. moves toward a more sustainable energy future, simply maintaining nuclear energy at 20 percent of U.S. electricity supply will require the construction of 20 to 25 new nuclear power plants by 2030. Additionally, modeling of climate change policy scenarios consistently shows that a failure to deploy sufficient nuclear power generation capacity will lead to an over-reliance on natural gas, the result of which will likely be reduced competitiveness for U.S. manufacturers and higher energy costs for all Americans." In the report, they state: "The first step toward meeting this need is demonstrating the viability of 'next generation' nuclear technology such as high temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs)."

To accomplish this and move HTGRs from Development to Deployment is the need for a location to construct and operate a demonstration model and "First-of-a-Kind" (FOAK) plant. The SRSCRO Region has many of the attributes that could support such an endeavor.

A copy of the Dow 2012 Energy Plan for America can be found here.

In the old days, Congress would disagree over the federal budget for a few months before coming together to pass a budget by the start of the new fiscal year on October 1. This changed in the 1990s, when the impasse in Congress resulted in a temporary shut-down of the Federal government operations. The budget has since become a political battleground with Congress rarely passing a budget on time. The current fiscal year is no exception.

The way to keep the government from shutting down without an appropriations act is by passing a "continuing resolution," (CR) or stop-gap appropriations measure. If all players (the House, the Senate, and the President) are agreed that a CR is in order, it can be quickly passed and the government stays open. The CR generally provides funds for a short time, and avoids all issues that may have caused the delay in the regular appropriations act.

Advantages of the CR are that it keeps the government from shutting down, and provides a level of service that, for most citizens, may not be noticeably different from normal service. Another advantage is that it keeps key decision makers (members of Congress, the President, and the President's key aides) from having to make decisions that they may not want to make. In short, the CR buys time with little pain.

Disadvantages are felt within a government agency. Most CRs are fairly restrictive in what funds they provide, and what work may be carried out. CRs restrict program implementation, and present operating component managers with the need to delay work and re-plan repeatedly. Plans cannot be implemented and opportunities are lost. CRs also present budget and administrative staffs with additional workloads, and reduce the efficiency of work processes. CRs force work into a nine to ten month work year, wasting two to three months of the year in what is essentially "wheel spinning" in the affected agencies.

This fiscal year 2013 has started under a Continuing Resolution, as have past years. CRs are normally a simple pro-rata allocation of the prior fiscal year that funds the government while Congress works toward a solution. This is not necessarily the case with the 2013 CR, especially for SRS.

A limited number of specific funding and policy changes are contained in the 2013 CR. These changes are referred to as "anomalies" because lawmakers wanted to keep the CR generally free of changes to the FY 2012 baseline, so that work on the bill would proceed quickly and so that lawmakers would have incentive to come back and work on the final FY 2013 spending bills (where they could make more specific changes). Among the anomalies included in the CR is "a provision allowing additional funding for nuclear weapons modernization efforts, to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the nation's nuclear stockpile."

For SRS, these CR "anomalies" are good, in that the NNSA side is operating with minimum impact. However, the CR on the DOE-EM (clean-up side) is causing problems. This is mainly because approximately $100M of EM work at SRS was being funded by ARRA in 2012. The simple pro-rata allocation of the prior fiscal year meant that this ARRA funding did not move forward. Thus, SRS-DOE-EM started FY 2013 with an approximately $100 million short-fall and the need to re-allocate resources. The result, in part, is the voluntary separations, release of contract employees and construction labor, cancellation of service contracts, limited operations posture over the holiday, and the mandated use of leave we are hearing about today. You can find what funding level needs were requested to cover these areas in the Department of Energy FY 2013 Congressional Budget Request - see Solid Waste Stabilization and Disposition (PBS: SR-0013 - Page 239) and Soil and Water Remediation (PBS: SR-0030 - Page 243).