Nuclear Energy Budget More Than Expected, Unclear How INL Affected
The Office of Nuclear Energy is getting more money than expected for the 2012 fiscal year.
A boost in funds is a good thing for the agency, but where the money goes is still up in the air. All told, $800 million will go to the agency that funds the Idaho National Lab.
“There were certain areas where we did better than we had anticipated,” said Department of Energy spokesman Brad Bugger.
The office had requested $52 million more than their award, but a figure so close to the requested amount means relative success. Department of Energy spokesman Brad Bugger said it’s too soon to get too excited.
“Not all of that money will come to Idaho,” said Bugger.
Even what money does come may not neccesarily stay at the INL.
“Some of it is known as ‘pass-through’ money, which means that while it comes to Idaho, it goes out to industry or other areas,” said Bugger.
The details of the funding won’t be known until early next year. Another part of the budget unknown is the cash flow that will come in from work out-sourced to DOE departments like the INL by other government agencies.
“That money is divided out by those particular agencies and then sent to various laboratories to do research,” he said. “We don’t know how much of that we’re getting yet.”
More cash in general might perk up some ears, specially after more than 200 INL employees lost their jobs in September. The DOE said the layoffs were voluntary.
“They asked for volunteers, they got about 200 people who stepped forward and said they would voluntarily leave,” said Bugger.
He said those who chose to leave did so to address what the department calls an “indirect recovery” problem. That is, too many employees working in roles not related to specific research.
The Department of Energy said research on a new generation of nuclear reactor will likely continue in Idaho, but it doesn’t necessarily mean a reactor of that kind will be built here.
The Idaho Clean Up Project, funded by the Office of Environmental Management will get $382 million for the 2012 fiscal year.
