DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
AT A GLANCE:
2006 Discretionary Budget Authority: $23.4 billion
(Decrease from 2005: 2 percent)
Major Programs:
• Energy research and development
• Science
• Safety, security, reliability, and effectiveness of nuclear weapons
• Environmental clean-up
MEETING PRESIDENTIAL GOALS
Promoting Economic Opportunity and Ownership
• Promoting energy efficiency and a diverse supply of clean, reliable, and affordable energy by supporting
the next generation of nuclear power, developing clean coal technologies, moving toward
a hydrogen economy, advancing renewable energy, and improving the reliability of the electricity
supply.
• Providing for the continued development of a permanent repository for nuclear materials so the
Nation will finally have a safe, secure, and permanent solution for disposal of spent nuclear fuel
and high-level radioactive wastes.
Protecting America
• Safeguarding nuclear weapons, nuclear materials, and sensitive nuclear technology and expertise.
• Certifying the safety and reliability of the Nation’s nuclear stockpile.
Supporting a Compassionate Society
• Helping low-income families cut their utility bills while conserving energy through continued
strong support for weatherization assistance.
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110 DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
MEETING PRESIDENTIAL GOALS—Continued
Making Government More Effective
• Providing five-year funding plans for three major programs—nuclear security, environmental
cleanup, and science—which will provide a better basis for making funding decisions for 2006
and future years.
Agency-specific Goals
• Providing a responsible resolution to the environmental legacy of the Cold War by accelerating
the cleanup of nuclear weapons production sites.
THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006 111
PROMOTING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY AND OWNERSHIP
An important element of the President’s six-point plan for promoting economic prosperity is ensuring
diverse, safe, affordable, and reliable sources of energy. The Department of Energy (DOE) has
far-ranging responsibilities in this area, from investing in energy technologies that have the potential
to transform the way we produce and use energy to ensuring the safe disposition of high-level
nuclear waste material. Consistent with the National Energy Policy approved by the President, the
2006 Budget proposes significant spending on research and development toward a hydrogen economy
that includes affordable zero-emission fuel cell vehicles; on developing carbon sequestration and
advanced coal technologies to ensure that the United States’ 250-year coal reserves can be used with
significantly less impact on the environment; and on continuing research on advanced nuclear technologies
and the potential for fusion energy. It also focuses on making current forms of energy use
more secure, efficient, and environmentally benign.
Promoting Nuclear Energy
The 2006 Budget includes a package of initiatives that will aggressively promote clean nuclear
power, including investments to advance near-term construction of new nuclear power plant designs.
The Budget provides a total of $56 million in 2006 for the Nuclear Power 2010 initiative to make
it feasible for new nuclear power plants to be built in the United States for the first time in three
decades. Under this initiative, the Department and two private consortia, comprising many of the
country’s major nuclear utilities and reactor vendors, have created public-private partnerships to develop
applications and obtain Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses for new Generation III+ nuclear
power plant designs. These efforts will reduce the uncertainty of getting the designs approved,
which is a major obstacle to their financial viability. If successful, this seven-year, $1.1 billion effort,
112 DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
PROMOTING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY AND OWNERSHIP—Continued
50 percent of which would be non-Federal funding, could result in a new nuclear power plant order
by 2009 and a new nuclear power plant constructed by the private sector and in operation by 2014.
The 2006 Budget is also looking ahead to the next generation of nuclear power plants. The Budget
provides $45 million for research and development to support Generation IV nuclear energy systems.
Generation IV technology offers the promise of a safe, economic, and proliferation-resistant source
of clean nuclear power and hydrogen. The Budget also continues research on advanced, proliferation-
resistant nuclear fuel cycles, which would allow the Nation to extract the energy potential from
spent nuclear fuel and dramatically reduce the quantity and toxicity of the remaining waste. It also
proposes tax changes to help ensure nuclear plant decommissioning costs are adequately funded and
increases funding to provide a deep geological repository for high-level nuclear waste at the Yucca
Mountain site in Nevada.
The repository would consolidate at Yucca Mountain the nuclear waste
now stored at some 125 sites in 39 States.
Yucca Mountain
The long-term viability of nuclear power requires
the Nation to provide environmentally
sound management of nuclear waste. More
than 20 years ago, the Congress assigned DOE
responsibility for disposing the spent nuclear
fuel generated by civilian nuclear power
plants and the high-level waste generated
over the past 50 years by defense activities of
the U.S. military, the clean-up of World War
II-era weapons plants, and the reduction of
the Nation’s nuclear arsenal. More than 161
million Americans live within 75 miles of the
125 sites in 39 States that currently store
these materials. After carefully considering
over 20 years of scientific research, in 2002,
the President recommended, and the Congress approved, designation of a site at Yucca Mountain,
Nevada for the safe storage and disposal of this waste in a mined geologic repository. Successful
completion of a repository at Yucca Mountain will ensure that the Nation has a single underground
facility, secure from potential terrorist threats, where nuclear waste is disposed in a manner that
protects the environment and our citizens.
Costly Delays
The cost of the delay in opening a safe repository for nuclear waste is large and growing. In August 2004, the
Justice Department settled the first claim brought by a nuclear energy utility for the Federal Government’s
failure to begin taking waste in January 1998, the legally required start date. Under the settlement, the
United States agreed to pay Exelon $80 million for its waste storage costs incurred through 2003, and will
pay the additional costs it will incur until the Department has caught up on its obligation to accept Exelon’s
spent fuel. Similar lawsuits with over 60 other utilities could require taxpayers to make enormous future
payments to these utilities for the costs of delay.
THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006 113
The Administration is committed to completing the license application process and constructing
the repository expeditiously, always mindful of health, safety, and sound science. To accomplish this,
the Budget includes $651 million for the repository in 2006. The Administration believes that the
fees currently paid to the Government by utilities to finance the repository should be treated as offsetting
collections against the appropriation from the Nuclear Waste Fund. The amount credited as
offsetting collections should not exceed the amount appropriated for the repository.
Developing Cleaner Coal Technologies
Carbon sequestration is a family of methods for capturing and
permanently isolating carbon dioxide. Sequestration of carbon
dioxide emissions from coal could help retain coal’s strategic value
as a low-cost, abundant, domestic fuel.
The 2006 Budget provides $286 million for
the President’s Coal Research Initiative to
improve the environmental performance of
coal power plants by reducing emissions and
improving efficiency. This includes $68 million
for the Clean Coal Power Initiative, of which
$18 million is allocated to continue development
of the FutureGen coal-fueled, zero-emissions,
electricity and hydrogen generation project
announced by the President in February 2003.
FutureGen is guided by an industry and international
partnership that will work cooperatively
on research, development, and deployment of
technologies that will dramatically reduce air
pollution from coal-fueled electricity generation
plants, generate hydrogen, and capture and
store greenhouse gas emissions. The Budget
ensures that unexpended funds available from
prior years’ clean coal projects are available to fund future clean coal activities, beginning with
FutureGen. The Budget also increases funding for research and development of other clean coal
technologies, such as Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle systems, carbon sequestration, and
next-generation turbines.
Hydrogen Fuel Initiative
Making Fuel Cell Vehicles More Affordable
DOE is making progress towards the goal of a 2015 commercialization
decision on hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles and
the infrastructure to fuel them. The high-volume cost of automotive
fuel cells has been reduced from $275/kW in 2002 to
$200/kW in 2004 using innovative processes developed by the
national laboratories and fuel cell developers. Additional research
is needed for fuel cells to achieve the cost competitive
target of less than $50/kW, which roughly equates to the cost
of today’s typical internal combustion engine.
In February 2003, President
Bush announced a five-year, $1.2
billion Hydrogen Fuel Initiative
to reverse America’s growing
dependence on foreign oil. The
initiative focuses on developing the
science and technology for clean
hydrogen production, distribution
infrastructure, and commercially
viable hydrogen-powered fuel
cells, which produce virtually no
pollution or greenhouse gases. The
President’s Initiative established
the United States as the international
leader in hydrogen and fuel cell research and spurred significant private-sector investment in
these areas. The 2006 Budget includes $260 million for the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative to develop the
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fundamental science and technologies to produce, store, and distribute hydrogen for use in fuel-cell
vehicles, electricity generation, and other applications. The 2006 Budget continues strong support
for high-risk, high-payoff basic research that is closely coupled and coordinated with the initiative’s
applied research and development programs. The Department is also leading the International
Partnership for a Hydrogen Economy, a 15-nation research effort aimed at reducing the cost of
hydrogen production, hydrogen delivery infrastructure technologies, and fuel cell components,
and developing uniform technical codes and standards. With complementary work ongoing under
the FreedomCAR partnership, these efforts keep the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative on track for a 2015
commercialization decision by industry that could revolutionize personal transportation, provide
consumers better performance and more choice, and significantly reduce environmental and
international energy security concerns.
Tax Incentives for Renewable Energy and Hybrid and Fuel Cell Vehicles
The 2006 Budget proposes tax incentives totaling $3.6 billion through 2010 to spur the use of clean,
renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies. Consistent with the President’sNational Energy
Policy, the tax incentives include credits for the purchase of hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles, residential
solar heating systems, energy produced from landfill gas, electricity produced from alternative energy
sources such as wind and biomass, and combined heat and power systems.
Fusion Research
In January 2003, President Bush committed the United States to participate in negotiations on
the largest and most technologically sophisticated energy research project in the world—the International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The United States and its international partners—
the European Union, Japan, Russia, China, and South Korea—continue to work toward a consensus
decision on the site for ITER early in 2005. If successful, this cost-shared $5 billion research
project will advance progress towards developing fusion’s potential as a commercially viable and
clean source of energy near the middle of this century. Assuming that international partners reach
a timely site decision, the $50 million provided in the 2006 Budget funds the first year of equipment
fabrication for the United States’ in-kind contributions to this important partnership.
THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006 115
The $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National
Laboratory in Tennessee will provide the most intense pulsed neutron
beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development.
Long-term Investments in Basic
Research
The Department supports a broad array of
basic research and operates a variety of unique
scientific facilities to support its energy and
national security missions. The 2006 Budget
proposes $3.5 billion for the Department’s
Office of Science. The Budget allocates funds to
best performers and activities that provide the
broadest benefits to society, including increases
in priority research funding for nanotechnology,
biotechnology, and the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative.
The Budget provides funding to complete construction
and begin operation of the Spallation
Neutron Source and four new nanoscale science
research centers. The Budget provides over $80 million to begin construction on the Linac Coherent
Light Source—a revolutionary new facility that will open entirely new realms of discovery in the
chemical, materials, and biological sciences. Likewise, the Budget continues support for high-end
computing research. With the completion of accelerator and detector upgrades, the two major
particle physics facilities will operate at their designed peak of scientific productivity.
Electricity Transmission
In 2003, the Administration created the Office of Electric Transmission and Distribution to lead the
Nation’s effort to modernize and expand its electricity transmission and distribution system. This
effort will help reduce the likelihood that blackouts and disruptions occur, and will help mitigate
the impacts if they do occur. The Budget includes $96 million for these activities. Recently enacted
legislation provides tax incentives proposed in the 2005 Budget to rural electric cooperatives and to
transmission-owning companies in their sale or disposition of transmission assets, which will accelerate
the transition to competitive wholesale power markets. The Administration continues its strong
support for legislation that would modernize the electricity transmission grid by reforming outdated
laws, promoting open access to the electricity grid, promoting regional planning and coordination,
and protecting consumers.
Energy Information and Analysis
The Budget includes $86 million for Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) programs to
provide valuable data collection, information, and analysis related to energy prices, demand, and
resources. EIA products are relied upon by both the private and public sectors in decision making
on energy issues. Among the activities funded in 2006 are improvements to petroleum and natural
gas data, continuation of energy consumption surveys, and the enhanced Voluntary Greenhouse
Gases emissions reporting system.
Power Marketing Administrations
The Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs), Bonneville, Southeastern, Southwestern, and
Western, sell electricity generated at Federal dams operated by the Corps of Engineers and the
Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec). With the exception of Southeastern,
116 DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
PROMOTING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY AND OWNERSHIP—Continued
which leases transmission capacity, the PMAs own and operate over 33,000 miles of transmission
lines from the Midwest to the West coast.
The Administration makes several proposals in this Budget to improve the performance of the
PMAs by removing unnecessary Government intervention and allowing the PMAs to operate in a
more business-like, efficient manner.
PMAs strive to provide reliable and dependable power to
customers.
The 2006 Budget proposes a reclassification of
receipts that are currently deposited to the Treasury
and are collected based on appropriations for
PMA expenses. The Budget proposes that these
receipts directly offset appropriations requested
for the Program Direction and Operation and
Maintenance activities of the Southeastern,
Southwestern, and Western Area Power Administrations.
This proposal excludes Bonneville,
which already finances its activities from receipts.
This change will put PMA operations on a more
business-like basis.
In addition, the Budget proposes reclassifying
receipts to directly fund the hydropower portions
of the Corps of Engineers and BuRec operations
and maintenance expenses, totaling $211 million for 2006. Currently PMAs collect receipts based
on appropriations to the Corps and BuRec for these activities. Directly funded activities will include
short-lived capital investments typically considered maintenance. Direct funding will enable the
Corps and BuRec to perform needed maintenance and small rehabilitation projects in a more timely
manner. The Administration reproposes the direct financing of BuRec’s hydropower research and
development activities by Bonneville and Western, the primary beneficiaries of the program.
The Administration will propose legislation to very gradually bring PMA electricity rates closer to
average market rates throughout the country. According to the Government Accountability Office,
PMA rates are artificially low because taxpayers across the Nation have borne some of the PMAs’
costs. Thus, the general taxpayer has helped subsidize the cost of PMA power purchased by electricity
wholesalers. Reducing subsidies to electricity wholesalers is consistent with the Administration’s
fiscal policies, and this proposal will create a more level playing field for the Nation’s electricity suppliers
and encourage appropriate energy conservation.
Fulfilling a commitment in the President’s 2005 Budget, the Budget proposes specific legislative
language to clarify what Bonneville liabilities and obligations should be counted toward Bonneville’s
statutory cap on borrowing. Under Budget Enforcement Act scorekeeping procedures, some agency
transactions, such as lease-purchases, result in liabilities that make a claim on future Bonneville
resources, and therefore constitute a form of Federal debt for budget purposes. Bonneville entered
into one such transaction in 2004 and is considering entering into others. To ensure the integrity
and usefulness of Bonneville’s $4.45 billion debt limitation with the Treasury, the Administration is
proposing legislation to ensure that, in the future, these types of debt-like transactions are treated
as debt and counted toward Bonneville’s statutory debt limit. In order to accommodate Bonneville’s
projections of its investment through 2010, including potential financing through transactions that
would count against its debt cap under proposed legislation, the Budget is proposing to increase the
limit on Bonneville’s debt by $200 million.
THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006 117
PROTECTING AMERICA
The mission of DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is to:
• Maintain and enhance the safety, security, reliability, and effectiveness of the Nation’s nuclear
weapons stockpile;
• Prevent the spread of materials, information, and technology of weapons of mass destruction by
eliminating or securing nuclear materials, information, and related infrastructure; and
• Provide the Navy with safe and highly capable nuclear propulsion plants for warships.
NNSA personnel and their contractors are responsible for producing,
inspecting, refurbishing, and dismantling all parts of nuclear weapons,
including outer cases, like the B83 bomb casing shown here.
Nuclear Stockpile Stewardship
The Nation’s nuclear deterrent remains a
critical component of our defense strategy.
NNSA manages this asset to assure that the
Nation is capable of responding to whatever
challenges it may be called upon to address.
Since 1992 and the establishment of a
moratorium on nuclear testing, DOE has
maintained the safety, security, reliability,
and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons
stockpile through its science-based stockpile
stewardship program. The program ensures
the operational readiness of the Nation’s
nuclear weapons using science and technology
to detect and predict problems in the stockpile.
NNSA also relies on advanced engineering
methods to develop and apply solutions to extend the life of aging warheads.
Knowledge gained from this program improves the understanding of nuclear weapons physics, enables
timely and effective maintenance and refurbishment of existing nuclear warheads, and maintains
a design and manufacturing base that can respond rapidly to new challenges and produce new
weapons if required. Three national laboratories (Los Alamos, Sandia, and Lawrence Livermore),
the Nevada Test Site, and production facilities in Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas
employ about 1,500 Federal and approximately 35,000 contract personnel to do this work.
The 2006 Budget continues to emphasize programs supported in the Nuclear Posture Review released
by the Administration in January 2002. The 2006 Budget of $6.6 billion for Weapons Activities
strongly supports the science-based stockpile stewardship work that is the backbone of these
programs. The 2006 funding levels will enable NNSA to fulfill the Nation’s needs for a safe, secure,
reliable, and effective nuclear force.
The Weapons Activities work consists of five major categories of programs:
• Directed Stockpile Work programs, which support the Department of Defense’s (DOD) nuclear
weapons requirements by maintaining and refurbishing warheads to ensure their safety, reliability,
and performance. Programs include research, development, and production associated
with weapons maintenance, life extensions, and certification of continued reliability. Currently,
NNSA is in the process of refurbishing four weapons systems that originally entered service in
the 1970s and 1980s. Without new warheads entering the inventory, a robust refurbishment
program is the only way to maintain the nuclear deterrent with a high degree of confidence. In
2004, NNSA completed the first of four life-extension refurbishment programs to ensure that the
118 DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
PROTECTING AMERICA—Continued
Nation’s aging nuclear weapons stockpile is capable of meeting national defense requirements
without producing new warheads or conducting underground nuclear tests.
• Facility Operations and Infrastructure Programs underpin the stockpile work by providing for
the operation and maintenance of existing facilities and construction of new facilities. NNSA is
continuing its major effort to improve safety conditions throughout the complex at facilities that
have continued to decay since the end of the Cold War.
SafeGuards Transporter trailers and their armored tractors are used to
safely and securely transport DOE material across the continental United
States. NNSA currently has 31 of these trailers.
• Security Programs protect the nuclear
weapons complex, nuclear weapons and
their components, and transportation
of material between facilities. NNSA
manages Emergency Operations and
Nuclear Weapons Incident Response
assets that provide first-responder teams
in the event of a nuclear emergency.
The 2006 Budget increases by nearly
10 percent funding for Emergency
Operations infrastructure, recognizing
the critical role played by this effort in
the overall strategy to assure protection
of the homeland against radiological or
nuclear-based acts of terrorism.
• Science and Engineering programs develop
and maintain critical capabilities needed to certify the safety, reliability, and performance
of the nuclear stockpile into the future. As the United States last produced a new weapon in
1990 and conducted an underground nuclear test in 1992, there is a growing need to develop
tools that will allow NNSA to understand the effects of aging on the materials and systems in
weapons through non-destructive means. This work will remain critical as the United States
reduces the number of operationally deployed warheads to between 1,700 and 2,200 over the
next 10 years.
• Beginning in 2006, NNSA will manage the environmental restoration, legacy waste disposition,
newly generated waste, and decontamination and decommission activities at seven NNSA sites
that were previously funded by the Environmental Management program.
Preventing the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction
The convergence of heightened terrorist activities and the associated ease of terrorists moving
material, technology, and information across borders have made the potential of weapons of mass
destruction (WMD) the most serious threat facing the Nation. Preventing WMD terrorism is a top
national security priority of this Administration. The 2006 Budget provides an unprecedented level
of resources to protect the homeland from this threat.
THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006 119
The NNSA nonproliferation research and development program
provides operational support for space-based and ground-based
nuclear explosion monitoring systems.
The trends in global terrorism suggest that
terrorists are increasingly sophisticated, increasingly
interested in mass casualty attacks,
and are increasingly interested in acquiring
nuclear weapons or material. A sprawling
nuclear complex in Russia and other locations
in the former Soviet Union, and vulnerable
nuclear material elsewhere, remain the most
likely sources for the material, technology, and
expertise needed to develop nuclear weapons.
The Administration has targeted the nuclear
terrorism challenge with aggressive nonproliferation
programs that have achieved a
number of major successes in recent years,
including the dismantling of Libyan WMD
programs and unraveling of the A.Q. Khan
network.
Through the Global Partnership, a comprehensive
effort of the G-8 countries to commit
$20 billion over 10 years to nonproliferation
programs in Russia and other Newly Independent
States, the United States is dedicating the necessary resources to combat this complex threat.
The United States intends to provide half of the $20 billion of G-8 funding, including over $1 billion
in the 2006 Budget in the nonproliferation programs in NNSA, DOD, and the Department of State.
The 2006 Budget provides:
• $526 million in NNSA programs that support programs to secure, remove, or eliminate weaponsusable
material from vulnerable sites in Russia and other former Soviet States;
• $416 million in DOD Cooperative Threat Reduction programs that provide assistance in dismantling
nuclear weapons and provide transport and storage security; and
• $71 million in Department of State programs that support export control programs and other
nonproliferation efforts to include those targeted at preventing the spread of WMD expertise.
The NNSA uses the unique capabilities of the National Laboratories and many years of experience
managing international nonproliferation programs to detect, prevent, and reverse nuclear proliferation.
The 2006 Budget includes funding for the following programs:
• $246 million for the International Nuclear Materials Protection and Cooperation program to secure
nuclear material in Russia and the Newly Independent States. These programs fund critical
activities, such as installation of intrusion detection and alarm systems and construction of
fences around exposed nuclear sites. By the end of 2006, NNSA will have supported completion
of security upgrades at nearly 80 percent of the sites covered by the current bilateral agreement
to secure nuclear material and nuclear warheads in Russia and the Newly Independent States.
120 DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
PROTECTING AMERICA—Continued
Megaports first pilot project, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, became
operational in June 2004. Since then, the program has begun
implementation at five other large international seaports.
• $74 million for the Megaports Initiative
to deploy radiation detection equipment
at key overseas ports to pre-screen
U.S.-bound cargo containers for nuclear
or radioactive materials. This effort
coordinates closely with the Department
of Homeland Security’s Container Security
Initiative, and is an integrated
component of the overall Administration
strategy to detect illicit trafficking of
WMD.
• $98 million for a new initiative for
expanded and accelerated efforts to
secure and/or remove at-risk, nuclear and
radioactive material in the world’s most
dangerous regions. The programs under
this initiative have moved U.S.- and
Russian-originated nuclear fuel to safe
storage, converted reactors still fueled by proliferation-attractive highly enriched uranium, and
secured radioactive sources in such places as Iraq, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Romania,
and Libya in recent years.
• $272 million for the Nonproliferation Research and Development program to develop technologies
needed to detect nuclear proliferation, such as radiation detection sensors, monitor nuclear
explosions, and verify treaty adherence.
• $132 million to eliminate weapons-grade plutonium production in Russia. This program will
replace three Soviet-era reactors with fossil fuel energy plants, enabling Russia to stop by 2011
the annual production of 1.2 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium.
• $653 million to support a program to dispose surplus weapons-useable plutonium. Under the
agreement, both the United States and Russia agree to dispose 34 metric tons of plutonium by
converting it to a mixed-oxide fuel and burning it in electricity-generating nuclear reactors.
Naval Reactors
Spectators witness the October 2004 christening of the USS
VIRGINIA, the newest and most advanced nuclear attack submarine.
NNSA’s Naval Reactors program has a
long-standing duty to provide the U.S. Navy
with safe, effective and reliable nuclear reactors
to power the Navy’s warships. The program
is responsible for all naval nuclear propulsion
work, beginning with technology development,
continuing through reactor operation and,
ultimately, to reactor plant disposal.
The 2006 Budget of $786 million includes
$69 million for continuing work on the Transformational
Technology Core (TTC), which will
deliver a significant energy increase to future
submarines. The TTC is a direct outgrowth of
THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006 121
the Naval Reactors program in advanced reactor technology work and will not only help meet
national security demands, but will also act as a stepping stone for future reactor plant development.
Additionally, Naval Reactors funding in 2006 will provide for ongoing work on the new high-energy
reactor design for the next-generation aircraft carrier, the CVN 21. This new nuclear propulsion
plant design will enable the Navy to meet its current forecasted operational requirements, and will
provide flexibility to deal with projected defense and national security needs in the future. Above
all, the program will continue to ensure the safety and reliability of 103 operating naval reactor
plants and will add to its record of 134 million miles without a reactor accident or a significant
release of radioactivity to the environment.
122 DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
SUPPORTING A COMPASSIONATE SOCIETY
Weatherization Assistance
The 2006 Budget continues strong support for the Weatherization Assistance Program to cut the
utility bills of low-income families while conserving energy. The Budget includes $230 million for
this program, which in 2006 will help insulate and improve the energy efficiency of an additional
92,300 homes of low-income families. Since 2001, the President has achieved a cumulative increase
of nearly $300 million for the program, helping 117,000 more low-income families than would have
otherwise received assistance. At current energy prices, the program’s energy-efficiency measures
save each participating low-income family about $235 annually on utility bills and about $3,460 total
over the life of the improvements, at an average one-time cost to the Government of about $2,744.
THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006 123
MAKING GOVERNMENT MORE EFFECTIVE
Improving Program Performance
The Department has completed Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) assessments of 43 of its
60 programs, covering more than 75 percent of the Department’s funding. It has made substantial
progress in developing performance measures, including efficiency measures, which was one of the
areas of improvement identified in many of the PART assessments. The Department is also making
greater use of the conclusions of the PART assessments to inform its decision-making on funding. In
some cases, this has resulted in allocating additional funds to correct a problem, such as increasing
the multi-year funding profile of NNSA’s Elimination of Weapons Grade Plutonium Production program
to achieve annual and long-term performance goals. In others, the decision was made to reduce
or eliminate funding, such as the decision in the 2006 Budget to eliminate funds for the Department’s
oil and gas research and development programs, which often duplicate private sector R&D efforts.
Five-year Budgeting
Since the creation of the National Nuclear Security Administration in 2001, the Department has
developed a five-year budget plan for NNSA’s future program spending. Expanding this practice to
other parts of DOE will improve the ability to evaluate activities and funding planned for the next
year in the context of plans for the near- and mid-term goals and funding of the program. With the
2006 Budget, five-year budgets have also been developed for the Department’s Office of Science and
Environmental Management programs.
Applying Project Management Principles
The Department has established a systematic approach for ensuring that its multi-billion dollar
construction projects meet a defined mission need and are thoroughly planned within specific performance
thresholds. DOE manages a portfolio of 202 projects valued at $162 billion. The Department
requires its programs to report cost, schedule, and performance indicators for all major projects. The
2006 Budget provides $11 million to conduct external independent reviews to verify and validate the
cost, schedule, and performance estimates of these major projects.
Update on the President’s Management Agenda
The table that follows provides an update on DOE’s implementation of the President’s Management
Agenda as of December 31, 2004.
124 DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
MAKING GOVERNMENT MORE EFFECTIVE—Continued
Human Capital
Competitive
Sourcing
Financial
Performance E-Government
Budget and
Performance
Integration
Status
Progress
DOE remains a top performer in implementing the President’s Management Agenda (PMA). It has sustained
a high level of progress due to the efforts of its Management Council, chaired by the Deputy Secretary and
established to oversee implementation of the PMA initiatives. Top executives are responsible for developing and
implementing long-term action plans to get from concept to results. DOE received provisional authority for its
senior executive performance evaluation system and it strategically uses buyouts and early retirement authority
to successfully streamline its workforce while building its skill mix and limiting involuntary separations. DOE
continues to implement its competitive sourcing plan, announcing its largest Federal employee competition to
date, which includes 684 Federal positions. The competitions DOE completed in 2004 will yield $40 million in
savings over the next five years. DOE issued its 2004 financial statement in 45 days and received an unqualified
clean audit opinion. Implementation of earned value management of DOE’s major information technology
(IT) investments continues as DOE works to demonstrate a 90 percent adherence to cost, schedule, and
performance targets on $2.5 billion of IT investments. On all 54 of its major non-IT capital assets, DOE can
demonstrate a 90 percent adherence to these targets for 81 percent of the projects and for 94 percent of the
dollar value, which exceeds $13 billion.
Initiative Status Progress
Real Property Asset Management
DOE developed a draft asset management plan and is working to complete and approve 10-year site
infrastructure plans for its roughly 50 major site complexes.
THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006 125
AGENCY-SPECIFIC GOALS
Reforms Clear Major Hurdle
Recently enacted legislation will allow DOE, subject to Nuclear
Regulatory Commission coordination, State permits, and
judicial review, to proceed with its plans to accelerate treatment
and disposal of certain wastes at sites in Savannah River,
South Carolina, and in Idaho. The legislation allows DOE to
empty and treat wastes from underground storage tanks to
the greatest extent practicable, and to leave in place stabilized
residual waste that meets low-level waste disposal standards.
Safe and secure on-site disposition of these wastes will allow
taxpayers to avoid tens of billions of dollars in additional costs.
Environmental Management
A half century of nuclear
weapons production and energy
research, much of which occurred
prior to the national commitment
to a clean environment as a top
priority, have left large amounts
of radioactive contamination and
hazardous waste at 114 sites in 31
States and one U.S. territory. By
the end of 2005, DOE is scheduled
to have cleaned up 79 of these sites,
with the largest and most challenging
site cleanups remaining.
The Rocky Flats clean-up will be completed by the end of 2006 at a
savings of over $28 billion from DOE’s 1995 estimate.
For many years the Environmental Management
(EM) program failed to achieve its
risk-reduction mission, was unable to effectively
control cost and schedule overruns, and
experienced significant problems in project
management and contract administration.
However, under the Administration’s aggressive
reform initiative, program performance is
beginning to turn around:
• DOE (including NNSA) expects to accelerate
cleanup completion by 35 years and
save $54 billion (reducing the estimated
total cost to clean up these sites from
$196 billion to $142 billion).
• New acquisition strategies focus on
unbundling work, using small businesses, competing contracts, and rewarding excellent
performance.
• An effective workforce strategy has reduced the workforce necessary for cleanup by 39 percent
since 2000—retaining capable employees and increasing management accountability.
The 2006 Budget provides $6.5 billion for the EM program to continue implementing reforms that
will accelerate the reduction of risk to the public and the environment, and provides $222 million for
clean-up and waste management of seven sites transferred in 2006 from EM to NNSA. The Budget
also provides the funding needed in future years to ensure success of this important environmental
initiative.
126 DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Department of Energy
(In millions of dollars)
Estimate 2004
Actual 2005 2006
Spending
Discretionary Budget Authority:
National Defense:
National Nuclear Security Administration................................................ 8,691 8,914 9,397
Other Defense Activities................................................................................ 499 482 426
Energy Resources................................................................................................ 2,787 2,817 2,737
Science and Technology.................................................................................... 3,523 3,600 3,463
Environmental Management ............................................................................ 7,041 7,284 6,505
Nuclear Waste Disposal..................................................................................... 577 572 651
Corporate Management..................................................................................... 232 250 261
Total, Discretionary budget authority ................................................................. 23,350 23,919 23,441
Memorandum: Budget authority from enacted supplementals ............... 3 — —
Total, Discretionary outlays ................................................................................... 22,721 24,591 24,172
Mandatory Outlays:
Existing law ........................................................................................................ 1,366 1,372 1,062
Legislative proposals ...................................................................................... — — 40
Total, Mandatory Outlays ....................................................................................... 1,366 1,372 1,102
Total Outlays ............................................................................................................... 21,355 23,219 23,070
