A Flanged Tritium Waste Container (FTWC) is a stainless-steel certified pressure vessel designed for long-term storage of tritium-contaminated waste items. The Laboratory is planning to vent headspace gases from four of these containers in June. Courtesy/LANL

By KIRSTEN LASKEY

Los Alamos Daily Post

kirsten@ladailypost.com

Four flanged tritium waste containers (FTWCs) in TA-54’s Area G will undergo a venting process in June before eventually being transported off the Hill to an out-of-state facility.

NNSA Los Alamos Field Office Public Affairs Specialist Toni Chiri said venting all four containers will take 10 days. Afterwards, they will be transported to the Laboratory’s Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility to be treated and packaged for permanent disposal at an appropriate out-of-state facility, she said.

According to a LANL fact sheet on this project, the venting process is necessary for these FTWCs because the containers were packaged for disposal at TA-54 in 2007. As part of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s efforts to reduce waste stored on site, it was decided to ship the containers offsite but to meet the regulatory requirements of the U.S. Department of Transportation, the pressurized gasses must be vented.

A NNSA Los Alamos Field Office presentation describes how the venting process works: the four FTWCs will be prepared to be unvented, a controlled venting fixture will be installed on the FTWCs, the controlled venting fixture will be connected to a capture system and to vent the FTWCs and finally a pressure monitoring manifold will be installed on the FTWCs. Chiri said the venting process will occur where the FTWCs are located.

Only the headspace gas will be vented; the stored radioactive material will remain, according to the presentation.

It was reported in the presentation that due to the COVID-19 effects, the venting process was delayed until the necessary staff were on hand to complete the work safely and compliantly. During this waiting period, the FTWCs are being safely stored and do not represent a risk to the public.

“There is currently a window of time in which safe, compliant controlled venting can be performed,” Chiri said. “Once that time passes – likely in less than two years – any effort to move or mitigate the containers becomes much more difficult and introduces new risks, including possible curtailment of Area G cleanup efforts.”

To ensure everyone’s safety, the venting process will undergo real-time monitoring to ensure that public health and safety is protected and that no regulatory limits are exceeded in accordance with Department of Energy (DOE) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements.

The venting process will be carefully controlled and monitored and the results will be made available to the public in the Laboratory’s Annual Site Environmental Report (ASER) and the Laboratory’s Electronic Public Reading Room, according to the LANL fact sheet.

It is also noted in the fact sheet that tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Naturally occurring tritium is very rare in the atmosphere.

It is not chemically toxic and the amount planned to be released poses no risk to public health and safety or the environment.

“All decisions about the FTWCs are made by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and informed by the Lab’s scientific and technical experts and must follow the NEPA process and all other state and national environmental laws,” Chiri said. “In this case, NNSA must comply with the Clean Air Act, among other regulations. The Clean Air Act limits are set at levels that are protective of even the most vulnerable members of the population, including pregnant women, children, and the elderly. By following the Clean Air Act, the venting of the FTWCs will be safe for all residents of the nearby communities.”

“NNSA and the Lab have a method that is proven to be safe and effective to vent the FTWCs under carefully controlled conditions,” she added. “The method maximizes the protection of workers, our neighbors, and the environment.”

Last fall, the international community rose up in defense of the Pacific Ocean. Seafood and salt purveyors, public policy professors, scientists and environmentalists, all lambasted Japan’s release of radioactive wastewater from the disastrously damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the sea.

At the heart of the contention was tritium, an element that, by mass, is 150,000 times more radioactive than the plutonium used in the cores of nuclear weapons. Odorless and colorless, tritium — the radioactive form of hydrogen — combines with oxygen to form water. Just one teaspoon is enough to contaminate 100 billion gallons more water up to the U.S. drinking water standard, according to Arjun Makhijani, an expert on nuclear fusion and author of the monograph, “Exploring Tritium Dangers.”

What didn’t make international headlines — but was quietly taking place on the other side of the world — was Los Alamos National Laboratory’s own plans to vent the same radioactive substance into northern New Mexico’s mountain air. Japan’s releases would take place over three decades. LANL’s would include up to three times more tritium — and take place in a matter of days.

There is no hard timeline for the release, but if the plans are approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, LANL is looking at a period with “sufficiently warm weather,” a spokesperson from the National Nuclear Security Administration wrote by email. That could mean as soon as this summer.

Those controversial plans date back to 2016, when LANL discovered that a potentially explosive amount of hydrogen and oxygen was building up in four containers of tritium waste stored in a decades-old nuclear dump called Area G. The safest and most technically viable solution, the lab decided — and the best way to protect workers — would be to release the pressure and, with it, thousands of curies of tritium into the air.

When advocates caught wind of the venting in March 2020, Covid was in its earliest and most unnerving phase. Pueblo leaders, advocates and environmentalists wrote impassioned letters to the lab and the EPA, demanding that they change or, at the very least, postpone the release until after the pandemic. At the same time, Tewa Women United, a nonprofit founded by Indigenous women from northern New Mexico, issued its first online petition, focusing on tritium’s ability to cross the placental barrier and possibly harm pregnant women and their fetuses. Only after a maelstrom of opposition did the lab pause its plans and begin briefing local tribes and other concerned members of the community.

“We see this as a generational health issue,” said Kayleigh Warren, Tewa Women United’s food and seed sovereignty coordinator. “Just like all the issues of radioactive exposure are generational health issues.”

Talavai Denipah-Cook, left, and Kayleigh Warren, of Tewa Women United, oppose LANL’s plans to vent tritium. One of the organization’s key precepts is “violence on the land is violence on our bodies.” Michael Benanav/Searchlight New Mexico

Last fall, the lab again sought the EPA’s consent. A second petition from Tewa Women United followed. Eight months later, the federal agency’s decision is still pending.

The NNSA, which oversees the health of America’s nuclear weapons stockpile from within the Department of Energy, declined Searchlight New Mexico’s requests for an interview.

The crux of the issue comes down to what is and isn’t known about the state of the containers’ contents. Computer modeling suggests they are pressurized and flammable, but the actual explosive risk has not been measured, the lab has conceded.

Critics have requested that the contents be sampled first to determine whether there is any explosive risk and whether venting is even needed. The EPA says that sampling would require going through the same red tape as venting. The lab, for its part, plans to sample and vent the contents in one fell swoop.

But why, critics wonder, are these containers in this state in the first place? Were they knowingly over packed and left for years to grow into ticking time bombs?

“I do not like the position we’re in,” James Kenney, cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department, told the Legislature’s Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee in 2020. The containers, he said, had been “neglected for so long by both DOE and the Environment Department” that NMED potentially faces a lose-lose situation: Vent the tritium drums and try to prevent the emissions from being released into the air or “run the risk of leaving those drums onsite knowing that they are pressurized and could rupture, meaning an uncontrolled amount of tritium would go out.”

Venting and vexing

State and federal documents paint a kind of chicken-and-egg dilemma. The containers can’t be moved until the pressure is vented. But the movement itself may cause more pressure to build up, requiring a second, third or even fourth venting.

The drums were packed in 2007 and stored at Area G on the lab’s southeast side, for years marooned and dormant. In 2016, the explosive risk was discovered and the lab issued standing orders prohibiting workers and state and federal regulators from getting within 50 feet of the drums, except on a “case-by-case basis.”

The original plan was to vent the containers only once at Area G and then cart them across LANL’s campus to the Weapons Engineering Tritium Facility, located along its northwestern edge, where they would further be processed. But soon, the lab realized that one venting wouldn’t be enough.

The movement out of Area G, the lab feared, would jostle the containers “replicating the potentially hazardous situation the venting is intended to alleviate,” a revamped application to the EPA read. That’s when LANL arrived at a new, if trickier, plan using a specialized mobile rig to partially vent these particularly vexing containers at various locations at Area G and then, if the pressure should build en route, at locations outside the tritium facility.

Copyright photos of this setup show what looks like a typical clothes dryer duct stretching across the pavement, connecting to a container on one end and an exhaust stack on the other. The lab estimates that a molecular sieve would capture between 20 to 90 percent of the tritium before it enters the air — a device considered the industry standard.

In a worst-case scenario, the containers could unleash up to 20 millirem of tritium to the public, the lab estimated — double its federal release limit of 10 millirem per year for all operations. But the use of the sieve, LANL contends, makes it more likely that fewer than six millirem will reach the public.

One might get slightly more radiation from a chest X-ray, the EPA offered as a comparison in an email to Searchlight. However, as all experts concur, not all radiation is the same. Some forms are more damaging than others: If or how radiation enters the body is an important consideration. Specifically, radiation is most harmful when ingested.

Here in New Mexico, the release would represent LANL’s highest overall emissions in nearly two decades. (Every year, the lab must tally the total emissions from the 28 “stacks” it uses to release contaminants from buildings, including the two that routinely emit tritium.)

The lab has to make another crucial calculation — where a member of the public would be standing to potentially receive the highest radiation dose from the venting. According to the lab, this “maximally exposed individual” would be near a church in White Rock. There are at least three near the boundary of the lab and Technical Area 54, the location of Area G.

Local tribes would receive “less than one-tenth of the dose that would be received by the hypothetical maximally exposed individual (MEI) in White Rock,” the lab said in response to community concerns. Those limits, it concluded, “will therefore be protective of all population centers.”

Tritium 101

Plutonium and uranium are familiar to most people, if by name only. But few know anything at all about tritium — a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is used to make watch dials and EXIT signs glow bright neon. Tritium’s other, lesser-known use is as a “boost gas,” which, when inserted into the hollow core of a plutonium pit, amplifies a nuclear weapon’s yield. Globally, hundreds of atmospheric weapons tests dispersed tritium into the atmosphere, steeping rain, sea, and groundwater with the element and, ultimately, lacing sediment worldwide.

Tritium is widely produced at nuclear reactors and is today tested, handled and routinely released at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Criticisms of this venting have always centered on two of the element’s key characteristics: First, it travels “tens to hundreds of miles,” according to lab documents. Second, when tritium is in the form of water, it becomes omnipresent and easy for bodies to absorb.

“Tritium is unique in this,” wrote Makhijani. “It makes water, the stuff of life, most of the mass of living beings, radioactive.”

Years of LANL reports depict tritium’s ubiquity in the lands and ecosystem within its bounds, a palimpsest of radioactive decay. This is measured in curies, a basic unit that counts the rate of decay second by second.

The lab’s first environmental impact statement, published in 1979, estimated that it had buried close to 262,000 curies of tritium at Area G and released tens of thousands more into the air from various stacks over the decades. The lab had two major accidental releases of tritium around the same time — 22,000 curies in the summer of 1976 and nearly 31,000 curies in the fall of 1977.

A fence line between Area G and White Rock, a few feet from the junction of State Road 4 and Pajarito Road. Michael Benanav/Searchlight New Mexico.

Today, trees have taken it into their root systems on Area G’s southeast edge. Rodents scurrying in and out of waste shafts are riddled with the substance, owing to tritium vapors from years past. A barn owl ate those rodents and had 740 times more tritium concentration in its body than the U.S. drinking water standard, the common reference value for indicating tritium contamination. The lab’s honeybee colonies — kept to determine how radioactive contaminants are absorbed — produced tritiated honey up to 380 times more concentrated than the drinking water standard, reports show.

The EPA set the current standard for radioactive emissions at DOE facilities in 1989, but that didn’t stop the lab from releasing thousands of curies of tritium into the air shortly afterward. In 1991, the EPA issued a notice of non-compliance to the lab for not calculating how much of a radiation dose the public received. Another notice followed in 1992.

Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety filed a lawsuit two years later alleging that the DOE hadn’t properly monitored radioactive emissions, as required by the Clean Air Act. At the time, a former lab safety officer, Luke Bartlein, observed what he described in an affidavit as a “pattern and practice of deception at LANL with respect to the radionuclide air monitoring system.” It was routine for lab staffers and management to vent glove boxes and other materials contaminated with tritium outside so that the contamination would deliberately “not register” on the stack monitors, he recounted, leading to false emissions reports.

The lab settled in 1997; a consent decree followed and would stay in effect until 2003. The lab says it has maintained low annual emissions ever since.

Critics are wary though. “Is this a precedent-setting event?” Warren, of Tewa Women United, wondered about the proposed venting. After all, documents show that another container was vented at the tritium facility where this procedure is authorized, in April 2019, releasing a total of five curies, the lab confirmed.

At least 15 more containers with tritium waste appear to be in limbo there and at Area G, two of which are in line to be vented after this emission is completed.

Radioactive secrets

For surrounding communities, the lab’s history of secret experiments has long politicized northern New Mexico’s air. In its earliest decades, the lab detonated radioactive lanthanum, a short-lived but strong source of radiation, in canyons near Pueblos and Nuevomexicano communities just miles downwind.

Elder Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez, one of Tewa Women United’s founders, can still remember hearing those detonations rumble in the canyons near her home in San Ildefonso Pueblo when she was a girl. Only decades later did documents disclose just how far those emissions had traveled outside of lab property, eastward across the Tewa Basin all the way to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and beyond.

Radiation protection standards should have pregnant women at the center, according to Elder Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez of San Ildefonso Pueblo at the Tewa Women United office in Española. The organization has proposed a model called Land Working Mother — in Tewa, Nava To’i Yiya.

“What if this was your place, the stream, the water, the mountains, the trees and everything that’s home, that was your survival,” Sanchez said. “And now it’s like, nope, it’s not viable for you anymore.”

Tewa Women United and others now worry that the region’s famously fitful winds will carry tritium, a consummate shapeshifter, to corners far beyond the lab’s bounds.

The movement will be invisible. First, tritium will transform moisture in the air. Then, that moisture will quickly contaminate other “open water surfaces and biota downwind, including food growing in the area and food in open-air markets, and humans themselves,” according to Ian Fairlie, a London-based radiation consultant for the European Parliament.

A fraction of that tritium can linger in the body, if ingested. In pregnant women, tritium can then stage another imperceptible passage across the placental barrier, concentrating 60 percent more of the element in the fetus than in the mother, according to Makhijani. Radiation exposure can lead to early failed pregnancies and neurological damage in the first weeks of gestation.

While the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has radiation exposure limits for pregnant women in the workplace, there are no specific radiation protections for pregnant women in the public — or their fetuses.

In 1999, Makhijani and more than 100 scientists, activists and physicians across the country and worldwide signed a letter to the National Academy of Sciences. Their ask? To evaluate how radionuclides that cross the placental boundary, including tritium, impact the fetus, a request Makhijani renewed in 2022.

As he put it, tritium — the “most ubiquitous pollutant from both nuclear power and nuclear weapons” — has largely escaped regulatory and scientific scrutiny when it comes to matters of pregnancy.

Cindy Folkers, the radiation and health hazard specialist at Beyond Nuclear, a national advocacy organization, believes the reason is rooted in the radiation establishment’s fear of liability. “You get layers and layers and layers and layers of denial.”

A book about radiation called “Environmental Justice Adventures,” created by a youth group at Tewa Women United. Michael Benanav/Searchlight New Mexico

The scant research that does exist comes from pregnant women who survived atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 1986, the International Commission on Radiation Protection concluded that exposing a fetus to ionizing radiation, the kind that tritium emits, has a “damaging effect…upon the development of the embryonic and fetal brain.” The area most at risk of harm, it went on, is the forebrain, which controls complex and fundamental functions like thinking and processing information, eating, sleeping and reproduction.

Ionizing radiation damages the cell in two ways. On the one hand, it breaks apart the building blocks from which humans are made, causing rifts in DNA. On the other, it fundamentally changes the chemistry of the cell, breaking apart its water molecules and upsetting its metabolism.

That’s what makes it different from, say, an X-ray, Folkers said. “A machine can be shut off,” but “a radioactive particle that’s inside your body will continue irradiating you.” For a pregnant woman, this adds up to “cumulative biological damage,” the kind that cuts across generations.

“We’re dealing with a life cycle,” Folkers said. “And females are an integral part of that life cycle. Not only are they more damaged by radioactivity, and their risks are higher for cancer, but they are also carrying in them the future generations. So when you’re dealing with a female baby who’s developing in the womb, you are dealing with that child’s children at the very least.”

In other words, a mother is like a Russian nesting doll. She holds a fetus and that fetus, if a female, holds all future eggs. Exposure to her is exposure to future generations.

Related

Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Return to Timeline of Events: 2002

Continue to Timeline of Events: 2004

Jump to month: February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

January 2, 2003

Los Alamos National Laboratory Director John Browne and Principal Deputy Director Joseph Salgado announce their resignations. Browne’s resignation is “a mutual decision” by him and the University of California (UC), notes UC President Richard Atkinson. Laboratory senior manager George “Pete” Nanos becomes interim director. Secretary Abraham welcomes the sweeping management changes and calls for continued action to rectify the underlying problems at Los Alamos. “For sixty years, the scientists and engineers of Los Alamos have played a vital role in ensuring the security of the United States,” the Secretary says. “It is crucial that we restore public confidence in the management of the laboratory so that they can continue to play that role. The nation needs the same confidence in the business management and security at Los Alamos as it has in the Laboratory’s weapons design and basic science.”

January 7, 2003

The Spent Nuclear Fuel Project at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Hanford site, located in eastern Washington, finishes moving more than two million pounds (957 metric tons) of highly radioactive spent fuel containing about 25 million curies of radioactivity out of the K Basins and further away from the Columbia River. The spent fuel is moved from underwater storage to dry storage in specially designed, vacuum-dried canisters, called multi-canister overpacks. The project is about at the halfway point of removing all the spent fuel — 2,100 metric tons — from both the K-West and K-East basins by 2004.

January 8, 2003

Deputy Secretary of Energy Kyle McSlarrow launches a new management system that will move DOE from manual, paper-based management to automated, web-based management. The Integrated Management Navigation System (I-MANAGE) program is a cornerstone of the Department’s efforts to achieve improved financial performance, integrated budget and performance, and expanded electronic government in support of President Bush’s Management Agenda.

January 9, 2003

The Department’s National Energy Technology Laboratory announces that a new lightweight, flexible drill pipe, engineered from space-age composites rather than steel, has passed an important field test and is being readied for its first commercial use. When used in the drilling of horizontal offshoots from existing vertical wells into the oil- and gas-bearing formations that previously were deemed uneconomic, the flexible pipe can remain bent for extended periods of time without suffering fatigue damage.

January 12, 2003

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) ministers meeting in Vienna agree to raise their crude production ceiling by 1.5 million barrels per day to 24.5 million barrels per day. Ministers said they anticipated that this would fill the supply shortfall created by the strike in OPEC-member Venezuela’s oil sector. They added that they hoped prices would fall back within the cartel’s $22-28 per barrel target range.

January 15, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces the first eight projects chosen by DOE in the initial phase of President Bush’s Clean Coal Power Initiative. The projects, valued at more than $1.3 billion, are expected to help pioneer a new generation of innovative power plant technologies that could help meet the President’s Clear Skies and Climate Change initiatives.

January 18, 2003

In a “virtual” groundbreaking ceremony in Portland, Oregon, the DOE Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Oregon State University (OSU) mark the beginning of the new Microproducts Breakthrough Institute established by the two organizations. The research and educational center will develop and help market advances in the emerging field of microtechnology. Projects either underway or for future consideration include portable personal cooling systems, lapel-pin-sized biosensors to detect chemical and biological warfare agents, pen-sized chemical reactors for environmental applications, and small systems to produce hydrogen for fuel cells in automobiles. The institute will be centered at OSU.

January 21, 2003

The first U.S. contribution to the Large Hadron Collider is received at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. The superconducting magnet, built at the DOE Brookhaven National Laboratory, is one of several advanced accelerator elements the U.S. will provide for the Collider under the terms of a 1998 agreement among CERN, DOE, and the National Science Foundation. The Collider is scheduled for startup in 2007.

January 22, 2003

The head of the International Energy Agency’s emergency planning division, Klaus Jacoby, says the agency is prepared to call for the release of emergency petroleum reserves on short notice if a supply disruption occurs in the Middle East.

January 22, 2003

The Department’s Bonneville Power Administration approves the first transmission line construction project under the agency’s infrastructure expansion program to relieve congested transmission paths in the Pacific Northwest. The 84-mile Grand Coulee-Bell 500-kilovolt project will connect Spokane with Grand Coulee, Washington.

January 24, 2003

As a deep freeze impacts on many parts of the nation, Secretary Abraham announces that President Bush’s 2004 Budget includes $288.2 million for DOE’s Weatherization Assistance Program, an increase of $11.2 million above the President’s fiscal year 2003 request. “As temperatures are falling to sub-zero levels,” the Secretary remarks, “the funds for weatherization assistance are rising to help low-income families across the country.” By improving the energy efficiency in homes, the program will reduce the energy bills of approximately 126,000 low-income families nationwide in 2003.

January 28, 2003

In his State of the Union address, President Bush announces a $1.2 billion Hydrogen Fuel Initiative to reverse the nation’s growing dependence on foreign oil by developing the technology needed for commercially viable hydrogen-powered fuel cells. “A single chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen,” the President tells the nation “generates energy, which can be used to power a car — producing only water, not exhaust fumes. With a new national commitment, our scientists and engineers will overcome obstacles to taking these cars from laboratory to showroom, so that the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen, and pollution-free.” The initiative will include $720 million in new funding over the next five years to develop the technologies and infrastructure to produce, store, and distribute hydrogen for use in fuel cell vehicles and electricity generation

January 30, 2003

In remarks to employees at DOE’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Secretary Abraham announces President Bush’s decision in favor of U.S. participation in negotiations on the construction and operation of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a major international magnetic fusion research project. The international cooperative effort will also involve Canada, the European Union, Japan, Russia, and possibly China. The mission of ITER is to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. ITER will provide 500 megawatts of fusion power for 500 seconds or longer during each individual fusion experiment and will be the first fusion device to produce a burning plasma and to operate at a high power level for such long duration experiments. The construction cost for ITER, including buildings, hardware, installation and personnel, is estimated to be about $5 billion. The U.S. share of the costs is expected to be about 10 percent.

Top of page

February 1, 2003

The Space Shuttle Columbia breaks up over Texas upon reentry to the atmosphere.

February 3, 2003

Secretary Abraham releases the Department’s Fiscal Year 2004 budget request to Congress, calling it a “good reflection on the Energy Department, its programs and its people.” The $23.4 billion budget request, the Secretary states, demonstrates that “this Administration and Congress recognize the critical contribution our work on defense, energy security, the environment, and world-leading science and technology makes to a peaceful and prosperous future.” The $23.4 billion request is an increase from the FY 2003 request of $21.9 billion. Of DOE’s four “business lines,” the NNSA is $8.8 billion, up from $8 billion in 2003; Energy programs are $2.5 billion, an increase of $9 million from 2003; Environment is $8 billion, up $354 million from 2003; and the Office of Science is $3.3 billion, an increase of $64 million from 2003.

February 6, 2003

President Bush, Secretary Abraham, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman tour hydrogen fuel cell technologies on display at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. “One of the greatest results of using hydrogen power,” the President notes in a speech to those assembled, “will be energy independence for this nation. If we develop hydrogen power to its full potential, we can reduce our demand for oil by over 11 million barrels per day by the year 2040. That would be a fantastic legacy to leave for future generations of Americans.”

February 6, 2003

The Department announces plans to establish an Office of Legacy Management to focus on the long-term care of legacy liabilities of former nuclear weapons production sites following environmental cleanup. Legacy liabilities stem from the activities of DOE and its predecessor agencies, particularly during World War II and the Cold War, and include radioactive chemical waste, environmental contamination, and hazardous materials at over 100 sites across the country. The Office of Legacy Management will be responsible for sites that have closed and are no longer supporting DOE’s ongoing missions.

February 7, 2003

The Department’s West Valley Demonstration Project in upstate New York completes processing liquid waste from its High-Level Waste Tank Farm. This accomplishment signals the end of Tank Farm waste processing at the site. In the next phase of operations — high-level waste tank lay-up — all the piping connections from the tanks will be isolated from adjoining systems.

February 7, 2003

The Savannah River Technology Center at DOE’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina dispatches a three-person team to Hemphill, Texas, to help in the underwater search for debris from the Space Shuttle Columbia. The team uses three remotely operated submersible vehicles to record and transmit real-time video to searchers on the surface of the reservoir.

February 11, 2003

Secretary Abraham says that it will not release oil from DOE’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to help alleviate high prices. “We’ve put a pretty high standard in place [for releasing SPR oil],” notes the Secretary, “because we really think that it should be only used in circumstances that truly involve serious supply disruptions that have broader connotations than some price fluctuations.”

February 12, 2003

In a program at DOE headquarters, Secretary Abraham, on behalf of the Bush Administration, launches the President’s “Climate VISION” (Voluntary Innovative Sector Initiatives: Opportunities Now)-a voluntary, public-private partnership to pursue cost-effective initiatives that will reduce the projected growth in American’s greenhouse gas emissions. The Secretary is joined in the program by Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, Deputy Secretary of Transportation Michael Jackson, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairman James Connaughton, and business and industry leaders.

February 13, 2003

Congress approves an omnibus appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2003 that provides $20.9 billion for DOE. This is $8 million less than President Bush requested but $920 million more than the Department received in FY 2002. The bill includes a one-year renewal of the Price-Anderson Act’s indemnification of nuclear power plant operators.

February 19, 2003

The Department’s Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico sign an agreement creating a new Office for Policy, Security, and Technology at the university. The collaborative initiative seeks to nurture scholarly thought and research on policy issues linked to threats to national and international security, especially in areas where technology and security are interrelated, such as weapons of mass destruction, arms control and nonproliferation, terrorism and homeland security, environment, energy, critical infrastructures, borders, sustainable development, and region-specific issues such as water scarcity.

February 25, 2003

At a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on DOE’s Fiscal Year 2004 budget, Secretary Abraham states that the implementation of a “strong comprehensive energy national policy” would help lessen the impact of the repetitive cycle of high energy prices. While acknowledging that even with energy legislation price spikes would not go away completely, the Secretary asserts that “we need to take action so that we don’t have a consistently repeating cycle of high prices for energy commodities, for energy prices.”

February 25, 2003

The Department announces that it will expand its coverage under the Former Workers Program to offer medical screenings to all former workers who were exposed to hazardous or radioactive substances during their employment at DOE facilities at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Kentucky. The program was established in response to Section 3162 of the Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1993 (Public Law 102-484), which directed the Department to develop a program of medical evaluation for current and former defense nuclear workers at risk for health problems due to exposures to hazardous or radioactive substances during employment.

February 27, 2003

Secretary Abraham and Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky announce the formation of an ambitious new international effort to advance carbon capture and storage technology as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Secretary states that the U.S. will lead a $1 billion, 10-year public-private-international effort to construct the world’s first fossil fuel, pollution-free power plant, known as “FutureGen.” Designed by an industrial consortium, the plant will turn coal into a hydrogen-rich gas, rather than burning it directly. The hydrogen would be used to power a turbine or fuel cell to generate electricity or for possible use in a refinery to help upgrade petroleum products. Also announced are plans for creating the “Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum,” which will bring together ministerial-level representatives to discuss the growing body of scientific research and emerging technologies for permanently isolating carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Top of page

March 5, 2003

A report by the Democratic minority staff of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations accuses DOE of mismanagement of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve by adding to the reserve when prices were high and the market was tight. Deputy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow responds that the report “misunderstands the facts and the purpose of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.”

March 5, 2003

The state of Washington files a lawsuit in Federal court to stop the shipment of out-of-state transuranic waste to the Department’s Hanford Site, arguing that DOE should have negotiated a schedule with the state by March 1 to clean up and remove buried and stored radioactive waste already at the nuclear weapons facility.

March 5, 2003

Secretary Abraham begins a 10-day international trip to promote the Bush Administration’s Hydrogen Fuel Initiative and to meet with international energy officials to discuss energy security. The trip includes stops in Brussels, London, Vienna, Moscow, and Budapest.

March 11, 2003

Secretary Abraham co-hosts the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference on the Security of Radioactive Sources in Vienna, Austria. The conference goals are to raise international awareness about the dangers of radiological dispersal devices (RDD), or “dirty bombs”; seek a new level of international cooperation on RDD issues; and encourage nations to better identify, account for, and secure RDD-related material. More than 600 experts from 100 countries are in attendance.

March 12, 2003

Secretary Abraham and Russian Minister of Atomic Energy Aleksandr Rumyantsev sign agreements that will facilitate the shutdown of three Russian nuclear reactors. The reactors, which are the last three in Russia that produce plutonium for military purposes, also provide necessary heat and electricity to the “closed cities” of Seversk and Zheleznogorsk in Siberia. Under the agreement, the U.S. will provide support to the Russian Federation for replacing fossil energy plants.

March 19, 2003

The Senate votes to remove language in a budget resolution calling for oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

March 19, 2003

The U.S. and its coalition partners initiate military operations against Iraq. The Department suspends transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in response to terrorism concerns. The Department allows only those trucks en route to the New Mexico repository to continue.

March 20, 2003

Secretary Abraham issues a statement declaring that “world energy supplies are more than adequate to compensate for any disruption” caused by the hostilities in Iraq.

March 21, 2003

The Department releases oil production figures from the Energy Information Administration that, Secretary Abraham notes in a statement, “confirm that world oil production is consistent and steady.” The Secretary adds that DOE continues to “closely monitor the world oil supply situation.”

March 25, 2003

The National Transmission Technology Research Center is dedicated at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The facility, a joint effort of ORNL, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the 3M Company, will test a conductor that may lead to more efficient and reliable transmission of electricity and enable researchers to address the problem of power outages caused by sagging lines that result from the heat of high current loads.

March 26, 2003

The Department lifts its suspension of transuranic waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

March 31, 2003

The Department’s Energy Information Administration reports that storage levels of natural gas are at record lows. Given the “narrow margin of surplus capacity,” any sudden demand increase or drop in production could result in significant short-term price increases.

Top of page

April 8, 2003

At a meeting of the U.S./Russia Energy Working Group (EWG), co-chairs Deputy Secretary of Energy Kyle McSlarrow and Deputy Minister Oleg Gordeev, Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, sign a new Protocol on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy as well as a Protocol on overall energy issues. President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the EWG in their May 2002 meeting as a means to strengthen the overall relationship between the two countries, as well as enhance global energy security, international strategic stability, and regional cooperation.

April 8, 2003

In its summer gasoline outlook, DOE’s Energy Information Administration states that retail gasoline prices are projected to average $1.56 per gallon for regular gas. The projected price is 17 cents per gallon above 2002’s summer average, but close to average summer prices in 2000 and 2001. The projected 2003 price falls well short of the real (adjusted for inflation) all-time summer high set in 1980 of $2.77 per gallon expressed in year 2003 dollars.

April 9, 2003

The Department files suit against the State of Washington’s Department of Ecology. In doing so, the Department moves to protect its cleanup interests as governed by the Tri-Party Agreement and counters a lawsuit filed at the end of February challenging certain DOE shipments of material to Hanford that are likewise important to DOE’s accelerated cleanup plans. “Recent actions by the State of Washington could have a chilling effect on cleanup operations at Hanford and elsewhere,” notes Jessie Roberson, assistant secretary of environmental management. “We believe we can work with the state on this issue to an eventual agreement, but in light of Washington’s actions, we felt we had to file this lawsuit to protect out interests.”

April 11, 2003

Department officials, back from a trip to Alaska’s North Slope, announce the forerunner of a new type of onshore drilling platform termed the “Arctic Platform” that dramatically reduces impact on fragile ecosystems. The Arctic Platform is a lightweight, 100-by-100-foot aluminum drilling platform elevated a dozen feet above the frozen tundra on specially designed steel legs. Its compact and modular design allows it to be safely transported by air or with ultra-low-impact vehicles called rolligons. “The Arctic Platform could be the industry’s next major step toward the day,” says Carl Michael Smith, assistant secretary for fossil energy, “when exploration and drilling would leave virtually no lasting trace on the surface.”

April 11, 2003

The House passes a comprehensive energy bill by a 247-175 vote. The vote is a “terrific victory,” notes Secretary Abraham, which “gives momentum to the goal we have of enacting an energy bill.” Among the provisions of the bill are an electricity title concerning market manipulations and consumer protections and language opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling.

April 14, 2003

Representatives of DOE and the National Institutes of Health announce the successful completion of the Human Genome Project more than two years ahead of schedule. The international effort to sequence the 3 billion DNA letters in the human genome, note project officials, “is considered by many to be one of the most ambitious scientific undertakings of all time, even compared to splitting the atom or going to the moon.”

April 22, 2003

The Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) announces that it has successfully made the first nuclear weapons “pit” in 14 years that meets specifications for use in the U.S. stockpile. The plutonium pit, called Qual-1 because it was built with and fully met qualified processes, is for the W88 warhead, which is carried on the Trident II D5 Submarine-Launched Cruise Missile, a cornerstone of the U.S. nuclear deterrent. A pit is the fissile core of a nuclear weapon’s physics package. The six-year effort at LANL’s plutonium processing facility restores a U.S. capability lost when DOE’s Rocky Flats Plant shut down in 1989. DOE identified LANL as the site to make nuclear weapon pits through the 1996 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Environmental Impact Statement.

April 24, 2003

Secretary Abraham, during a visit to The Institute for Genomics Research (TIGR) in Rockville, Maryland, announces that the Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives (IBEA), an affiliate organization to TIGR headed by J. Craig Ventner, will receive $3 million per year for the next three years for research to better understand microbial communities and to develop new, biological methods to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and to produce hydrogen. TIGR will collaborate with IBEA on the work.

April 24, 2003

NNSA announces plans to move forward with the fabrication of approximately 6.5 metric tons of surplus U.S. weapons-grade plutonium, previously intended for immobilization, into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel at DOE’s Savannah River Site. The Decision is part of the Bush Administration’s restructuring of the U.S. plutonium disposition program, which will dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus weapons-grade plutonium into MOX fuel for use in nuclear reactors.

April 24, 2003

The Department’s Bonneville Power Administration begins construction of the Grand Coulee-Bell 500-kilovolt Transmission Line Project, an 84-mile-long line connecting Spokane with Grand Coulee, Washington.

April 26, 2003

Deputy Energy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow and Acting National Nuclear Security Administrator Linton Brooks deliver to Secretary Abraham a report on the future relationship between Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of California recommending that the university continue to manage the laboratory through the end of the current contract in September 2005 but that DOE announce its intent to compete the contract when it expires.

April 28, 2003

In remarks at the International Energy Agency Ministerial meeting, Secretary Abraham calls for the development of international collaboration in advanced research and development that will support the deployment of hydrogen energy technologies. The Secretary’s proposed International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy would establish cooperative and collaborative efforts in hydrogen production, storage, transport, and end-use technologies; common codes and standards for hydrogen fuel utilization; and the sharing of information necessary to develop hydrogen fueling infrastructure. The vision of the partnership, the Secretary notes, “is that a participating country’s consumers will have the practical option of purchasing a competitively priced hydrogen power vehicle, and be able to refuel it near their homes and places of work, by 2020.”

April 30, 2003

Secretary Abraham travels to Doha, Qatar, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss international energy issues and promote international energy dialogue. While in Qatar, the Secretary tours the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), visits with the troops, and meets with two DOE employees detailed to CENTCOM in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. The two are providing DOE expertise in oil and gas infrastructure and energy assurance issues and nuclear/radiological emergency response actions.

April 30, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces that DOE intends to compete the management and operations contract for its Los Alamos National Laboratory, currently held by the University of California, when the current contract expires in 2005. Although the university has taken “vigorous action” to correct the problems uncovered at the laboratory, the Secretary notes, “the university bears responsibility for the systemic management failures that came to light in 2002.” The Secretary adds that the University of California will be eligible to compete for the new contract.

April 30, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces that DOE will compete and award separate contracts to implement its plan to revitalize the nuclear energy mission at its Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory complex and to accelerate the environmental cleanup of the site. The laboratory, which will be renamed the Idaho National Laboratory, will specialize in developing advanced nuclear energy technologies. DOE’s goal for Idaho, the Secretary says, is “to have this lab emerge as one of the premier applied research and nuclear engineering institutions in the world, without losing focus on the cleanup work that needs to be completed.”

Top of page

May 1, 2003

In a report on the international energy outlook, DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) projects that worldwide consumption of commercial energy will grow by 58 percent over the next two and one-half decades. The EIA expects much of the growth to occur in the developing world, with China, India, and South Korea leading the way, as their consumption increasingly resembles that of the industrialized world.

May 7, 2003

At a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing, DOE’s Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy David Garman states that the biggest technical challenge for President Bush’s initiative to speed the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles involves the storage of hydrogen on board vehicles. “The physical nature of hydrogen makes it difficult to store without a lot of weight and bulk,” notes Garman. “Weight and bulk are the enemy of automakers.” Although the other major hurdles are bringing down the cost of producing hydrogen and lowering the cost of fuel cells and improving their durability, Garman observes, “I probably worry most about storage than any of the others. We’re going to need a technology breakthrough.” The current method of storing hydrogen is to compress it in a sturdy tank. The Department is looking at chemical hydrides and carbon nanotubes for storing hydrogen without high pressure.

May 8, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces the release of a $150 million solicitation for the Hydrogen Vehicle and Infrastructure Demonstration and Validation Project that will spur the development of both hydrogen vehicles and hydrogen infrastructure needed to support them. The project solicitation seeks proposals for 50/50 cost-shared cooperative agreements between industry and DOE for the five-year project. Project teams will consist of an automobile manufacturer and an energy company in combination with hydrogen fuel cell manufacturers, small businesses, universities, and state/ local governments.

May 8, 2003

The Department’s Energy Information Administration drops its forecast for summer gasoline prices by 10 cents, to $1.46 per gallon. Secretary Abraham calls declining gasoline prices a “positive sign” for the economy. Retail gasoline prices have declined for seven weeks in a row since reaching a high in mid-March of $1.73 per gallon. Prices currently average $1.51 per gallon nationwide.

May 12, 2003

The Department’s Argonne National Laboratory hosts emergency management officials from Federal, state, and local agencies during the Top Officials 2 (TopOff 2) nationwide exercise. The Argonne site is used because of its security as a Federal facility and its distance from downtown Chicago, Illinois, which is part of the exercise. TopOff 2 begins in Washington State with a simulated “dirty bomb,” which goes off just south of downtown Seattle. Next is a simulated biological attack on the Chicago area.

May 13, 2003

In remarks at a meeting of the National Coal Council, Secretary Abraham asserts that the Bush Administration’s proposals to advance carbon sequestration, nuclear power and hydrogen research and development “will have a more profound effect on global climate and emission advancements than any other initiatives on the planet.”

May 13, 2003

A General Accounting Office report on DOE’s efforts to recover and secure radioactive sources asserts that securing the sources is “not a priority” for the Department and “not even fully-funded.”

May 14, 2003

In response to the GAO report on radioactive sources, the Department states that it has already recovered and secured, working together with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which licenses radioactive sources 6000 radioactive sources to date, including 1600 sources in the fiscal year 2003 alone. The program, the Department declares, “is fully funded to identify and recover all the sealed sources that the Department and the NRC have identified as priorities.”

May 16, 2003

Secretary Abraham, on the second anniversary of President Bush’s unveiling of his National Energy Policy, issues a statement highlighting the progress made in achieving the goals of the plan. “The National Energy Policy offered more than 100specific recommendations to increase domestic energy, diversify energy sources, modernize conservation efforts, and upgrade our national energy infrastructure,” the Secretary observes. “We have begun developing and implementing the second wave of policy initiatives built upon the visionary principles outlined in our original plan. These include the President’s FreedomCAR and Hydrogen Fuel Initiatives, Clean Coal Power Initiatives, and investments in carbon sequestration technologies.”

May 16, 2003

Secretary Abraham administers the oath of office to Ambassador Linton F. Brooks to be the administrator of NNSA and undersecretary of energy for nuclear security. Brooks has held both positions in an acting capacity since July 2002.

May 27, 2003

At a press conference with Russian Ambassador to the United States Yuri Ushakov, Secretary Abraham announces a $446 million NNSA contract award to Washington Group International and Raytheon Technical Services to begin work to shut down the last three remaining weapons-grade plutonium production reactors in Russia. Shutting down the three reactors, two located at Seversk and one at Zheleznogorsk, the Department says, will end the production of enough weapons-grade plutonium to produce approximately one nuclear weapon every day and a half. “The selection of the contractors is another significant step,” the Secretary notes, “in advancing the Bush Administration’s nonproliferation programs.” The Department will work to replace the reactors with coal-fired heat and electricity plants.

May 30, 2003

In response to a new report about lower-level management’s failure to report a potential security incident at DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, National Nuclear Security Administrator Linton Brooks announces the dispatch of a team of senior managers to assess the management of security operations at the nuclear weapons laboratory. The team is to follow up on recent reports about security concerns at Livermore, make recommendations about necessary changes in operations, and assess whether NNSA should assume direct management of security at the laboratory. “Senior management at Lawrence Livermore and the University of California have responded aggressively to revelations about security problems,” Brooks notes, “but I am disturbed by evidence that other managers in the chain of command have been lax in identifying and reporting potentially serious security problems.”

May 30, 2003

The Justice Department joins a lawsuit brought by an environmental group against Lockheed Martin Energy Systems that alleges, in part, the company submitted false claims for millions of dollars in government funds while operating DOE’s Paducah, Kentucky, gaseous diffusion plant from 1984 to 1998. “The government is declining to intervene in other allegations contained in the complaint,” the Justice Department says, such as that Lockheed Martin Energy Systems “improperly exposed workers to radiation hazards and introduced radioactively contaminated metals into interstate commerce.”

Top of page

June 2, 2003

The Department announces that a modified jet engine has been used to successfully fight a West Virginia mine fire that had been burning for nearly two months and was the cause of 300 employees being temporarily laid off when mine operations were idled. Positioned at the mouth of one of the mineshafts, the jet engine was used to blow water vapor and inert gases into the mine to smother the fire by creating an inert environment underground. The Department and the National Institutes of Occupational Safety and Health provided a portion of the costs to test the innovative fire suppression system.

June 3, 2003

The Department announces the opening of a new Lexington, Kentucky, office established to implement environmental cleanup activities for the Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Kentucky, gaseous diffusion sites.

June 3, 2003

NNSA announces that the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory produced 10.4 kiloJoules of ultraviolet laser light in a single laser beamline, setting a world record for laser performance. When completed in 2008, NIF will consist of 192 laser beams delivering ultraviolet laser light equivalent to 1.8 megaJoules to millimeter size targets. NIF will provide 50 times more energy than any other laser system and will be a cornerstone of NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Program without underground nuclear testing.

June 10, 2003

The Department’s Fernald Closure Project in Ohio hosts its final public tour of the Fernald site before it reaches safe closure in 2006. The former Feed Materials Production Center was the first link in a chain of government facilities that manufactured the atomic bomb, producing high-purity uranium for the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. The site’s mission shifted from uranium production to environmental restoration in the late 1980s.

June 16, 2003

In his keynote address to the European Commission’s (EC) Conference of the High-Level Group on Hydrogen and Fuel Cell (HLG-HFC) technologies in Brussels, Belgium, Secretary Abraham notes the emphasis that both the U.S. and the EC have placed in their respective hydrogen initiatives as well as their mutual cooperation and achievements in the area. “We believe our work on hydrogen and the work being done elsewhere around the world is perhaps the most significant game-changing endeavor the energy sector will see in our lifetimes,” the Secretary asserts. “And working together with international partners, we can leverage scarce resources and advance the schedule for research, development, and deployment of hydrogen production, storage, transport, and end-use technologies.” The EC established the HLG-HFC, composed of EC auto and transport companies, utilities research institutes, and policymakers, in 2002 to advance the development of the hydrogen economy.

June 20, 2003

President Bush and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva agree to launch a broad, bilateral energy partnership. In support of the partnership, Secretary Abraham and Brazilian Mines and Energy Minister Dilma Rousseff sign a Memorandum of Understanding formally initiating energy cooperation. “This partnership will strengthen bilateral cooperation on energy modernization and new technologies for both countries, promoting economic growth and energy security,” states the Secretary.

June 24, 2003

A General Accounting Office report, released at a hearing of the House Government Reform subcommittee on national security, documents shortcomings in the NNSA management of its safeguards and post-September 11 security program. NNSA, the GAO states, cannot be assured that its contractors are working to maximum advantage to protect critical facilities and materials from adversaries seeking to inflict damage.

June 24, 2003

Sandia National Laboratories President C. Paul Robinson announces management changes prompted by the findings of an independent investigation looking into allegations that some internal security investigations were impeded or the investigators were retaliated against.

June 24, 2003

Secretary Abraham directs NNSA to take immediate corrective action to overhaul security at DOE’s national laboratories.

June 25, 2003

Secretary Abraham along with Energy Ministers and their representatives from around the globe today signed the first international charter in support of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF). The charter sets the framework for international cooperation in research and development for the separation, capture, transportation, and storage of carbon as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

June 26, 2003

Secretary Abraham, in remarks opening the National Petroleum Council’s Natural Gas Summit, notes that demand for natural gas has increased over the last decade to levels that are difficult to sustain under current supply and production constraints. “But this is not just about low reserves or supply and demand imbalances,” Secretary Abraham tells the Summit audience. “This is about real people and the real problems they confront when gas prices soar. It’s about senior citizens, living on fixed incomes, being forced to choose between skyrocketing heating bills or some other of life’s necessities.” The Secretary adds that “our goal coming out of this summit is to take quick and decisive action where possible to diminish the immediate impact of lower-than-expected supplies of gas.”

June 27, 2003

In a letter to all members of Congress following the Natural Gas Summit, Secretary Abraham calls for increased energy conservation to avert problems with gas supplies and prices later this year and through next winter. “Among the messages we received at the summit was that during the next six to18 months there are a limited number of opportunities to increase supply,” the Secretary notes, “and, therefore, our focus must be on-demand, with efforts to improve energy efficiency and conservation.”

Top of page

July 1, 2003

Touring DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, Secretary Abraham encourages Americans to use energy-efficient technologies and practices in their homes and businesses in the wake of rising natural gas prices this year. Demand for natural gas is expected to rise by as much as 50 percent over the next 25 years.

July 2, 2003

In letters to the Senate and House Armed Services committees, Secretary Abraham proposes the consolidation of DOE’s counterintelligence activities under his office, three years after they were split between DOE and NNSA. “In my opinion,” the Secretary tells the committees, “the current bifurcation of counterintelligence elements has proven to be an impediment to coherent and effective counterintelligence activities necessary for the entire complex and, therefore, must be corrected.” The change will require an act of Congress.

July 8, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces that he will invite countries that use liquefied natural gas (LNG) as an energy resource to attend a Global Liquefied Natural Gas Summit in the U.S. later this year to take a fresh look at the world’s LNG resources and markets. The Summit will explore global natural gas resources, proposed LNG supply projects, and export and import terminal facilities, among other topics of relevance to the global LNG industry.

July 8, 2003

NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks announces an initiative to reinforce current safeguards and security oversight and strengthen long-term security operations in the nuclear weapons complex. “There have been a wealth of studies of security in the weapons complex over the years, including outside commissions, internal review teams and investigative reports by the DOE inspector general and the General Accounting Office, but it is clear that not all the good ideas have been implemented,” Brooks notes. “I have directed a team to review the many recommendations and devise a plan for implementing any sound ideas that we have not yet undertaken.” Brooks launches the initiative after consulting with Secretary Abraham, who endorsed the efforts to ensure improved security oversight.

July 8, 2003

The Department’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) successfully executes the first plutonium shot using the Joint Actinide Shock Physics Experimental Research (JASPER) gas gun at DOE’s Nevada Test Site. LLNL scientists use the 100-foot, two-stage gas gun to fire a projectile at more than five kilometers per second at a plutonium target. The impact produces a high-pressure shock wave that passes through the plutonium in a fraction of a microsecond while diagnostic equipment measures the properties of the shocked plutonium. Shock physics experiments complement the ongoing subcritical experiment program at NTS as part of the NNSA stockpile stewardship program to maintain the safety and reliability of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile in the absence of underground testing.

July 9, 2003

The Department, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the state of South Carolina sign a Memorandum of Agreement to accelerate cleanup at DOE’s Savannah River Site for completion by 2025.

July 9, 2003

Secretary Abraham launches the Smart Energy Campaign to educate businesses, homeowners, and consumers on ways they can cut energy bills and curb their energy consumption to help the U.S. avoid a natural gas shortage over the next winter. The Secretary unveils DOE’s updated Energysavers.gov website and announces that he will travel to Long Island City, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Columbus, Ohio; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to spread the message of smart energy use around the country. In a letter to all fifty state governors, Secretary Abraham recommends actions the states can take to improve the natural gas situation, and he encourages the governors to join the Smart Energy Campaign. The Secretary also writes to state public utility commissioners offering suggested areas for state action to help ease the effects of a tightening natural gas market. These include programs to encourage consumer energy efficiency and demand, information and education campaigns on electric and gas conservation opportunities, more efficient power sources, infrastructure expansion, and public utility commission actions.

July 15, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces that drilling has begun on a 10,000-foot well to evaluate underground rock layers in New Haven, West Virginia, as part of a DOE carbon sequestration research project underway at the American Electric Power Mountaineer plant. The goal of the project, funded primarily by DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and managed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory, is to reduce carbon dioxide and other emissions believed to contribute to global climate change. “This project marks another step forward in our efforts to improve the environment while still making sensible use of coal, our most abundant energy source in the United States,” the Secretary states. “Maximizing our ability to sequester carbon dioxide through environmentally safe and effective methods is a mainstay of our efforts to reduce our reliance on foreign fossil energy sources.”

July 15, 2003

In his semiannual monetary policy report to Congress, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan states that high energy prices put economic growth at risk. “Oil prices, after dropping sharply in March on news that the Iraqi oil fields had been secured,” Greenspan notes, “have climbed back above $30 per barrel as market expectations for a quick return of Iraqi production appear to have been overly optimistic given the current security situation. Also worrisome is the rise in natural gas prices. Natural gas accounts for a substantial portion of total unit energy costs of production among nonfinancial, non-energy-producing firms.”

July 17, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces the selection of thirteen firms and educational institutions in twelve states to receive $75 million in cost-shared awards to fund new research in advanced fuel cell technology for vehicles, buildings, and other applications.

July 18, 2003

Secretary Abraham breaks ground on the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at the Oak Ridge National Lab, a $65 million dollar research and development facility dedicated to the study of nanoscale research. “Nanoscale research will, in many respects, represent the new building blocks for new technologies and applications across the science and industry spectrum,” the Secretary notes. “Understanding the properties of materials on the tiniest scale will have an impact on everything from medicine to manufacturing,” As a national user facility for nanoscale research, serving up to 300 scientists annually from universities, industries, and federal laboratories, the center will be the first of five Energy Department centers. The others will be located at the DOE’s Argonne, Berkeley, Brookhaven, and Sandia/Los Alamos national laboratories.

July 18, 2003

Secretary Abraham participates in the DOE’s first regional natural gas forum at Atlanta’s Southface Energy Institute. The forum brings together representatives from consumer groups, industry and government for an open discussion on short-term solutions to the natural gas problem.

July 21, 2003

In a major milestone in the High Enriched Uranium (HEU) Blend Down Program, DOE’s Savannah River Site makes the first shipment of low enriched uranium to Nuclear Fuel Services plant in Erwin, Tennessee, where it will be prepared for fabrication into fuel for use in TVA’s reactors. The HEU Blend Down Program takes HEU, a weapons-usable form of uranium, and blends it with natural uranium to make low enriched uranium, which cannot be used in weapons. “Today marks a big step in our nation’s nonproliferation efforts,” notes Secretary Abraham. “We have taken material that was left over from the Cold War and turned it into something that is unattractive for use in weapons. Not only that, but we’ve turned it into a material that has an important peacetime use, producing electricity.”

July 21, 2003

As part of his efforts to examine both long- and short-term solutions to the growing demand for natural gas, Secretary Abraham tours the Cove Point Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal located in Maryland. Cove Point will become the nation’s fourth and largest LNG terminal when it becomes operational later this year.

July 23, 2003

In a special ceremony at the White House, President Bush presents the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civil honor, to Lawrence Livermore National Lab Director Emeritus Edward Teller. Teller’s daughter Wendy accepts on her father’s behalf. Teller, the President says, “helped to shape the course of human history,” and played a “pivotal role in ending the Cold War.” Over the course of his long career, Teller played an important role in the Manhattan Project, has been credited with being “the father of the Hydrogen bomb,” and was a central figure in the Reagan Administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative. “Dr. Teller is a remarkable person,” notes Secretary Abraham. “He is regarded as one of the giant figures of the 20th century, whose contributions to winning both World War II and the Cold War are immeasurable. But I also believe that Edward Teller should be regarded as one of the most important figures of the 21st century. His unwavering support for science education has inspired countless men and women to pursue lives in science.”

July 24, 2003

Secretary Abraham and Secretary of Commerce Don Evans unveil the Bush Administration’s strategic plan for the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) on long-term global climate variability and change at a press conference. The strategic plan for the CCSP, a joint program that brings together the resources and expertise of thirteen federal agencies, describes a plan for developing knowledge of variability and change in climate and related environmental and human systems, and for encouraging the application of this knowledge. “This plan identifies four core approaches that will serve as the backbone to achieving its mission,” notes Secretary Abraham. “Those areas are identified as science, observations, decision support, and communications. By focusing in these specific areas we can focus on moving in new scientific directions, employing new research activities, filling critical data gaps through observations, developing operational tools for decision-makers and managers, and communicating results across communities and across borders.”

July 24, 2003

The Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory releases new color maps of the planet Mars, drawn from data collected by Los Alamos equipment aboard the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which revealed the hydrogen content of the planet’s surface. Described as “breathtaking,” the color maps show the likely sites of water on Mars and showcase their association with geologic features like the Vallis Marineris, the largest canyon in the solar system.

July 28, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces that 234 small businesses in 34 states will receive DOE grants totaling $102 million to conduct innovative research. DOE chose 351 projects from among 1,450 proposals submitted under DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. DOE’s Office of Science administers both programs.

July 31, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces the release of two solicitations for research and development in hydrogen production, delivery and storage technologies. These solicitations will provide funding of up to $200 million over four to five years to support President Bush’s Hydrogen Fuel Initiative.

July 31, 2003

Unable to agree on comprehensive energy policy legislation crafted by the Republican majority and facing the August recess, the Senate reaches a bi-partisan agreement to re-pass, by a vote of 88-14, the Democratic bill passed by the Senate in 2002. “I promise you we will write many of this year’s energy provisions into the bill at conference,” notes Senator Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico) who will chair the conference committee. “We will do more for production. We will do more for energy diversity. We will do more for research. The final bill will look more like what I produced in committee this spring than it will the bill we are passing tonight. Tonight’s bill is just a vehicle to get us to conference.”

July 31, 2003

Meeting in Washington at the U.S.-hosted Earth Observation Summit, delegations from more than thirty countries agree to work cooperatively to establish a comprehensive and coordinated earth modeling system aimed at providing critical scientific data needed to address potential climate change challenges. “The information provided by the system will help in the formulation of sound, science-based environmental policies,” notes Secretary Abraham.

Top of page

August 5, 2003

Following a meeting with the Italian Minister of Productive Activities Antonio Marzano in Rome, Secretary Abraham announces Italy’s intention to join the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy. Several other countries have also shown interest.

August 12, 2003

Secretary Abraham tours Daimler Chrysler’s Nabern Fuel Cell Research Facility in Germany. “I’m pleased to visit Nabern, which is in the forefront with its cutting edge hydrogen fuel cell research technologies,” the Secretary says. “I believe our work on hydrogen in the United States, Germany and elsewhere is perhaps the most significant endeavor the energy sector will see in our lifetimes. Working together, we can leverage scarce resources and advance the schedule for research and deployment of hydrogen technology.” The U.S. has committed $1.7 billion for the first five years of a long-term research and development program for hydrogen, hydrogen infrastructure, fuel cells, and hybrid vehicle technologies. The European Union has committed up to 2 billion Euros to long-term research and development of renewable and hydrogen energy technologies.

August 12, 2003

The Department publishes a draft agency strategic plan in the Federal Register and asks for public comments. The document “charts the course for the next 25 years — focusing on the Department’s technical capabilities to meet its needs and provide innovative solutions for the future.”

August 13, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces that the DOE will provide over $17 million for 187 energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in 48 states, the District of Columbia, and one territory. Funding is provided through DOE’s State Energy Program Special Projects competitive grants. The funds will be used to improve the energy efficiency of schools, homes, and other buildings; promote energy-efficient industrial technologies; and support renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass.

August 13, 2003

Secretary Abraham and Dutch State Secretary of Finance Joop Wijn sign a cooperative agreement to work together in the war on terrorism by installing special equipment at Europe’s busiest seaport, Rotterdam, to detect hidden shipments of nuclear and other radioactive material. “Terrorist groups and rogue nations trying to smuggle components for nuclear weapons is a serious threat that must be addressed,” the Secretary says. “Installing sophisticated radiation-detection devices here, and at other key shipping centers around the world, is a major step forward in preventing the trafficking of these dangerous materials.” The agreement is under DOE’s Megaports Initiative, which is part of the U.S. “Second Line of Defense” program intended to identify and intercept illegal shipments of weapons materials.

August 14, 2003

Scientists of the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) collaboration at DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, announce the official start of data-taking with the project’s 6,000 ton “far” detector. The MINOS detector, located deep in a historic iron mine in northern Minnesota, will be used to explore the phenomenon of neutrino mass. The far detector will “catch” neutrinos created at Fermilab’s Main Injector accelerator. The neutrinos will travel 450 miles straight through the earth from Fermilab to the mine.

August 14, 2003

At 4:10 p.m. EDT, the largest power blackout in North American history sweeps through eight U.S. States-Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey-and the Province of Ontario, Canada, leaving up to 50 million people with no electricity. Power is not restored for 4 days in some parts of the U.S. Ontario suffers rolling blackouts for more than a week before full power is restored.

Emergency response teams at the federal, state, and local levels go into action immediately to assess the situation and provide assistance. DOE initiates its protocol for contingency situations and works with appropriate agencies, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and with the North American Electric Reliability Council to assess the situation. Deputy Secretary Kyle McSlarrow coordinates the effort.

At 11:42 p.m., Secretary Abraham signs an emergency order directing the New York and New England Independent System Operators to activate, if necessary, the Cross Sound Cable connecting Shoreham, Long Island, and New Haven, Connecticut, allowing power to flow between the two states. The cable was energized a short time thereafter. Within hours, it was delivering 300 MW of energy from Connecticut to Long Island and also providing valuable voltage support and stabilization services for the electric transmission systems in both New England and New York. Operation of the cable reportedly prevented rolling blackouts from occurring in New York in the hours immediately after electric service was restored.

August 15, 2003

Secretary Abraham advises individuals in the areas affected by the blackout to help ensure the stability of the system by reducing energy use as their electricity comes back on line. “Electric service is being restored this morning, adding to power that was restored last night,” the Secretary notes. “Utility crews are working to restore the remaining service, to determine the cause of the outage, and to take steps to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future. While the power is being restored, we urge those who do have electricity in the affected areas to help the restoration process by conserving energy. Consumers should unplug major appliances until stable power is restored.”

Secretary Abraham appears on major network and cable news shows in the days following the power outage to keep the American public informed.

August 15, 2003

President Bush announces that Secretary Abraham and Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Herb Dhaliwal will co-chair a joint U.S.-Canadian task force to investigate the causes of the August 14 power outage and to identify ways to prevent a recurrence. “Minister Dhaliwal and I will start working immediately to find out what caused this massive blackout and to keep it from happening it again,” the Secretary says. “Reliable electric power is the lifeblood of the economy for both our countries. And it’s more than just a personal convenience-it’s essential to the health and safety of our citizens.”

August 16, 2003

Secretary Abraham meets with New York Governor George Pataki and New Jersey Governor James McGreevy in Albany, New York, to discuss the power outage.

August 17, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces that DOE has dispatched teams of investigators to the Northeast and Upper Midwest to begin on-site investigations into the cause of the power outage. “Using my authority under the Energy Supply and Environmental Coordination Act and the Federal Energy Administration Act, DOE will immediately begin collecting information and interviewing appropriate individuals-at the utilities, the North American Electric Reliability Council, and the Independent Systems Operators,” the Secretary says. “It is important that all parties preserve all relevant data so that it may be made available for review and inspection.”

August 18, 2003

Secretary Abraham conducts two conference calls with energy company CEOs as well as the heads of the various independent system operators (ISOs) in blackout-affected areas to urge their cooperation with the DOE investigation. All parties pledge their assistance.

August 19, 2003

Secretary Abraham holds a press briefing on the power outages. He announces that the North American Electric Reliability Council, which administers voluntary standards for electric transmission reliability, has agreed to work with the task force and to forego its own investigation of the incident. The Secretary adds that he has spoken with both the House and Senate Energy Committee chairs-Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-Louisiana) and Senator Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico)-and that both chairmen are “very confident” that a comprehensive energy bill will pass and that mandatory reliability standards will be included in the final bill.

August 19, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces that DOE has completed a major cleanup milestone of its Rocky Flats weapons facility, located near Denver, Colorado, marking the departure of the final shipment of nuclear weapons-usable material from the site. “Rocky Flats helped the United States win the Cold War and it is no longer in the nuclear weapons business,” the Secretary says. “Rocky Flats is on a path to close under budget. This removal of the weapons-usable material is a historic event, demonstrating what can be accomplished when DOE and its host communities work together.”

August 20, 2003

Secretary Abraham and Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Herb Dhaliwal meet in Detroit, Michigan, and agree on an Outline to be followed by the Task Force in its investigation of the recent power outage that affected Canada and the U.S. The Outline calls for the Task Force to determine what happened, and why the power outage was not contained. The Task Force will be supported by three Working Groups that will address the electric system, security, and nuclear issues. The Outline also calls for the development of recommendations on how to prevent future power outages. The Task Force will include Tom Ridge, secretary of Homeland Security; Pat Wood, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; and Nils J. Diaz, chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Canadian members will be John Manley, deputy prime minister; Kenneth Vollman, chairman of the National Energy Board; and Linda J. Keen, president and CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

August 20, 2003

The Department’s Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, breaks ground for a new $50 million special materials facility. The 10,000 square-foot facility will provide a purification process for the manufacturing of non-nuclear special materials needed to support future Y-12 Stockpile Life-Extension Program missions. Processes in the new facility will be housed in glove boxes, using state-of-the-art instrumentation and equipment.

August 22, 2003

President Bush, touring the Ice Harbor Lock and Dam on the Snake River in Burbank, Washington, states that the Pacific Northwest should preserve its hydroelectric capacity while continuing efforts to restore salmon populations. “The economy of this part of the world has relied upon the steady supply of hydropower. And we’ve got an energy problem in America,” the President says. “We don’t need to be breaching dams that are producing electricity.”

August 26, 2003

Activist and community groups file a lawsuit in federal court to prevent DOE’s Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories from building/operating bioresearch facilities that would handle live samples of deadly viruses until the laboratories conduct full-scale environmental impact statements.

August 27, 2003

Secretary Abraham and Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Herb Dhaliwal, as Co-Chairs of the U.S.-Canada Joint Task Force on the Power Outage, announce the membership of three Working Groups that will support the work of the Task Force. The Electric System Working group will be co-chaired by Alison Silverstein and David Meyer (U.S.) and Thomas Rusnov (Canada); the Security Working Group will be co-chaired by William J.S. Elliott (Canada) and Bob Liscouski (U.S.); and the Nuclear Working Group will be co-chaired by Linda J. Keen (Canada) and Nils Diaz (U.S.).

August 28, 2003

Declaring “an emergency continues to exist,” Secretary Abraham extends indefinitely his August 14 order requiring activation of the Cross Sound Cable between Connecticut and New York’s Long Island.

August 28, 2003

A DOE-commissioned study by the RAND Corporation reports that oil refiners expect that fuel supplies and prices will remain volatile as refineries produce fuels at near capacity levels in response to rising demand for petroleum products. RAND finds that refiners question their industry’s ability to keep up. Many have called for greater regulatory flexibility, but “a few refiners are contemplating the potential for a significant easing of demand,” perhaps as soon as 2010-2012.

Top of page

September 1, 2003

President Bush, in a high-profile Labor Day speech, calls on Congress to “stop politicking and get a good energy plan, so that we can make sure the economy continues to grow.” The President tells his Richfield, Ohio, audience, that they learned firsthand what it means to . . . to modernize the electricity grid, if you know what I mean. The grid needs to be modernized. First, we need to find out — and will find out — what went wrong, why you had your electricity shut down out here. But we ought to use this as an opportunity to modernize the system. They used to have — in the law they had — they said these electricity deliverers could have voluntary reliability standards. We don’t need voluntary reliability standards, we need mandatory reliability standards. We want to make sure there’s incentives for people to put new poles in the ground and invest.”

September 2, 2003

Secretary Abraham selects seven regional teams to help form the framework needed to develop carbon sequestration technologies and put them into action. The seven Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships include leaders from more than 140 organizations spanning 33 states, three American Indian nations, and two Canadian provinces. Recognizing the value of flexibility and the inadequacy of a “one size fits all” approach to carbon sequestration, each team will evaluate and promote the technologies and infrastructure best suited to its unique region. “Even as we focus our attention on other aspects of our energy security-including electrical power grids and crude oil supplies-the fact remains that we must continue finding ways to ensure that coal, our most abundant power source, remains a viable energy alternative,” the Secretary says.

September 3, 2003

Secretary Abraham testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the status of the joint U.S.-Canada Task Force investigating the August 14th power blackout. He tells the committee that the task force is looking at some 10,000 individual events in a 9-second span to determine what caused the outage. The Secretary also reports that DOE’s Energy Information Administration will conduct an inquiry into recent increases in gasoline prices. Some increase in prices was expected because of higher demand due to the Labor Day holiday, the Secretary notes, but the run-up “struck me as unusually large.”

September 4, 2003

President Bush, in a speech at the Kansas City convention center, outlines his Six Point Plan for the economy. The President’s third point focuses on energy. “A growing economy depends on steady, affordable, reliable supplies of energy,” the President notes. “And yet, as we’ve seen recently, businesses have had to cope with constant uncertainty-uncertainty because of shortages and energy price spikes or blackouts. It is hard to be able to plan for the future when you’re worried about energy supply. And this is especially true for manufacturing companies, which use about a third of the nation’s energy. And so we needed a comprehensive national energy plan, one that seeks to upgrade the electricity grid, that makes reliability standards by those who deliver electricity mandatory, not voluntary. We need to promote new technologies and alternative sources of energy. Someday we may just be growing our energy right here in the state of Missouri. But in the meantime, we’ve got to find more sources of energy here at home in an environmentally friendly way. I’ve been calling for Congress to pass a comprehensive energy plan for two years. For the sake of national security, for the sake of economic security, we need to be less reliant on foreign sources of energy.”

September 4, 2003

In its biennial “report card” on the nation’s infrastructure, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gives energy facilities a D+, with a downward long-term trend. Since 1990, the ASCE notes, national electricity capacity “has increased by only about 7,000 megawatts (MW) per year, an annual shortfall of 30%. More than 10,000 MW of capacity will have to be added each year until 2008 to keep up with the 1.8% annual growth in demand. The U.S. energy transmission infrastructure relies on older technology, raising questions of long-term reliability.”

September 5, 2003

The Department of Agriculture and DOE announce the selection of 19 projects that will receive $23 million for biomass research, development, and demonstration projects. Biomass is an organic matter that is available on a renewable or recurring basis. The joint grant program is part of the Bush Administration’s effort to increase the nation’s energy independence through the development of additional renewable energy resources from the agricultural and agroforestry sectors. “This Administration is committed to the development of a next-generation of biorefineries that serve the nation by producing cost-competitive biobased industrial products and transportation fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel,” says Secretary Abraham.

September 8, 2003

The Department’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), in its Short Term Energy Outlook, projects that crude oil prices “should remain near current levels of between $28 and $30 per barrel through December and gradually slide to roughly $26 per barrel after Iraqi oil exports return to near prewar levels in 2004.” In the last few months, the EIA notes, natural gas “wellhead prices are estimated to have risen about 60-70 percent above last year.” Gasoline price remained “relatively steady for much of July and the first week of August” but “during a recent three-week period, prices at the pump surged by over 20 cents per gallon.” The EIA’s August 25 gasoline price survey recorded a high for gasoline prices of $1.75 (U.S average regular, self-service). “Several converging factors,” the EIA observes, “contributed to this late summer price spike: tight supplies, heavy demand and a series of local supply disruptions, including the loss of electric power on August 14, which shut down several refineries in the Midwest. Not only did nominal retail gasoline prices hit record levels, but the 12 cents per gallon price rise (US average) between August 18th and August 25th was the largest weekly price increase since EIA began its weekly gasoline price survey. Pump prices should begin to recede this month, as many of the local supply problems have been alleviated and as the driving season winds down following the Labor Day weekend.”

September 9, 2003

Director Emeritus Dr. Edward Teller, the co-founder of DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, dies at his home following a stroke he had suffered a few days prior to his death. He was 95 years old. “We are deeply saddened by the news of his death,” Secretary Abraham says.

September 10, 2003

Secretary Abraham, in a letter to Senator Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico), provides the Bush Administration’s view to the House and Senate conference committee on the comprehensive energy policy bill. The Secretary states that the “Administration is pleased that a majority of the provisions of the President’s National Energy Policy are included in either the House or Senate version” of the bill. The Secretary “strongly urges” the conferees to “open a small portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to environmentally responsible oil and gas exploration and development.” The Secretary also calls for limitations on “numerous unnecessary, duplicative and costly research and development authorizations for appropriations that far exceed any contemplated levels of spending in future years.”

September 10, 2003

The Department announces the award of $12.3 million to 21 broad-based, cost-shared research projects that will simultaneously advance energy efficiency and fossil energy technologies. The projects promote crosscutting systems in different research fields designed to be applied to both areas of science. “Addressing cross-cutting science needs within DOE,” Secretary Abraham notes, “maximizes the taxpayers’ return on investment in key technology areas such as solid-state lighting, membranes that produce hydrogen, advanced fuels, and chemicals, solid oxide fuel cells, as well as process sensors and controls.”

September 10, 2003

Secretary Abraham presents Francis Collins and Aristides Patrinos with the Secretary’s Gold Award for their leadership of the government’s Human Genome Project. Francis Collins is the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services. Ari Patrinos heads the Office of Biological and Environmental Research at the DOE’s Office of Science. “These awards are in recognition of your vision and sustained leadership of the international human genome project, which culminated in the completion of the human DNA sequence in April 2003,” the Secretary says. “This outstanding scientific and management accomplishment has opened the door to the biotechnology revolution that now offers such promise for human health, clean energy, and a cleaner environment.”

September 11, 2003

Senator Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico), chairman of the comprehensive energy policy bill conference committee, states that he and Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-Louisiana) will draft the bill and then release it to other members of Congress. This is necessary, Domenici notes, because the bill is “so big and voluminous,” adding that “there is no reason” the bill should not be completed “in a month or five weeks.” Democrats would not be part of the drafting process. “They’d like to be part of writing this,” Domenici observes. “I started this process with the idea of getting a bill . . . and I don’t see any way we can just start meeting and go through [the bill line by line]. I believe we can derive a method with real opportunity for input and criticism.” Senator Jeff Bingaman, (D-New Mexico), senior Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the author of the bill approved by the Senate July 31, calls Domenici’s plan a “deeply flawed strategy” and a “marked departure” from past energy bill conferences.

September 15, 2003

On the first day of a four-country tour to discuss energy issues and nuclear nonproliferation, Secretary Abraham addresses the 47th General Conference of the International Atomic energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Austria. His remarks focus on nuclear non-proliferation and three areas where IAEA member states together can strengthen nonproliferation: safeguarding and physical protection of nuclear materials, preventing the trafficking of nuclear and radiological materials and technologies for weapons purposes, and improving the security of research reactors and facilities where nuclear and non-nuclear radiological material may be co-located. That same day, the Secretary and Republic of Korea Science and Technology Minister Park Ho-Koon, sign a bilateral agreement to conduct joint research and development on advanced proliferation-resistant fuel cycle technologies.

September 16, 2003

Secretary Abraham and Chairman of the China Atomic Energy Authority Zhang Hua-zhu sign a Statement of Intent affirming their commitment to recent understandings reached by the two countries on the exchange of nonproliferation assurances required for exchanges of nuclear technology.

September 17, 2003

Secretary Abraham addresses European global climate policy experts at the American Academy in Berlin, Germany, outlining the Bush Administration’s policies and goals for controlling the growth of greenhouse gas emissions and its efforts to develop new technologies to significantly reduce emissions of carbon dioxide from the transportation and energy sectors. The Secretary states that meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will be impossible without revolutionary new energy technologies being developed by U.S.-led research. Responding to criticism of the U.S. decision not to participate in the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that American officials claim would hamper the U.S. economy while exempting large nations such as China and India from complying with greenhouse gas-reduction targets, the Secretary says “the United States is neither ashamed of its position on Kyoto nor indifferent to the challenges of climate change. The United States is investing billions of dollars to address these challenges.” Nations seeking to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases “face one hard and clear choice,” the Secretary asserts. “Either dramatic greenhouse gas reductions will come at the expense of economic growth and improved living standards, or breakthrough energy technologies that change the game entirely will allow us to reduce emissions while, at the same time, we maintain economic growth and improve the world’s standards of living.”

September 19, 2003

In a Joint Steering Committee Meeting in Moscow, Russia, Secretary Abraham reaffirms his support to continue existing Nuclear Cities Initiative (NCI) projects to completion even though the government-to-government agreement expires on September 22, 2003. The NCI, a component of the DOE’s nonproliferation program, transforms former Russian nuclear weapons facilities to commercial, non-defense uses. To demonstrate a commitment to the long-term objectives of the program, the Secretary announces funding for a new project under the NCI program, the creation of a $9 million medical imaging center that will provide the capability for cancer diagnostics in the closed Russian city of Snezhinsk. “I am proud of NCI’s accomplishments,” the Secretary states, “and recognize that it serves a vital nonproliferation goal by assisting in the transition of Russian nuclear scientists and engineers to non-defense, commercial efforts.”

September 21, 2003

Secretary Abraham and Secretary of Commerce Don Evans meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at his residence outside Moscow. Discussions focus on bilateral energy projects and the upcoming Second U.S.-Russia Commercial Energy Summit.

September 22, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces that the previous day, September 21, 14 kilograms of fresh Russian-origin highly enriched uranium (HEU) were returned from Romania to the Russian Federation under the DOE-funded Russian Research Reactor Fuel Return (RRRFR) Initiative. The HEU was airlifted from Bucharest, Romania, to Russia where it will be down-blended and used for nuclear power plant fuel fabrication. The shipment is part of a U.S.-led cooperative international effort to reduce, and if possible eliminate, the use in and storage of highly enriched uranium in civil nuclear activities. “The RRRFR program exemplifies the strength of the U.S. and the Russian Federation partnership to reduce the threat of terrorism and prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction,” states the Secretary.

September 22, 2003

Secretary Abraham and Russian Minister of Energy Igor Yusufov join Secretary of Commerce Don Evans and Russian Minister of Economic Development and Trade German Gref, to open the Second U.S.-Russia Commercial Energy Summit in St. Petersburg. Topics of discussion include the development of an oil pipeline in Murmansk and large Russian liquefied natural gas projects. During the summit, the Secretary and Minister Yusufov meet to discuss energy issues and sign an oil response protocol that formalizes and implements the oil spill prevention and response agreement developed by both countries.

September 22, 2003

Secretary Abraham commends the Senate, in a letter to Senators Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico) and John Warner (R-Virginia) for keeping the President’s nuclear weapons initiatives in the 2004 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill. Domenici and Warner led the effort in rejecting amendments that would have struck $21 million form the bill for studies of the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, also known as the “bunker buster” bomb, and other weapons activities. “By funding advanced concepts,” the Secretary notes,” you allow us to undertake limited research into options for transforming the stockpile to meet the needs of the post-Cold War world. By funding test readiness, you allow us to be in a position to respond if we discover a need to correct major problems in an existing weapon crucial to our deterrent. And by funding the continued examination of options for a Modern Pit Facility, you help us prepare for the day when aging requires us to remanufacture existing pits to ensure weapon effectiveness.”

September 24, 2003

Construction begins to fix the notorious Path 15 transmission bottleneck in California. “I’m pleased that construction work on this important project has started,” Secretary Abraham says. “The recent Northeast blackouts emphasize the need for investment to improve the nation’s electric transmission infrastructure.” The project will add 1,500 megawatts of transmission capacity between the northern and southern California.

September 25, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces that researchers at DOE laboratories and companies with research funded by DOE have won 35 of the 100 awards given this year by R&D Magazine for the most outstanding technology developments with commercial potential. The award-winning projects include a carbon-based coating harder and slicker than Teflon; a miniature, infrared camera that can be used for night vision and medical imaging and to help firefighters see through smoke; a handheld tool that uses ultrasound pulses to assay the contents of sealed containers; and an adaptive optics system that combines technologies from astronomy and micromachining to advance the study and treatment of retinal diseases.

September 25, 2003

The National Petroleum Council (NPC) submits to Secretary Abraham its multi-volume report on natural gas, Balancing Natural Gas Policy – Fueling the Demands of a Growing Economy. The Secretary requested the report to provide insights on energy market dynamics as well as advice on actions that can be taken by industry and government to ensure adequate and reliable supplies of energy. The NPC finds that government policies encourage the use of natural gas but fail to address the need for additional natural gas supplies.

September 30, 2003

In remarks at a ceremony marking the Chicago Climate Exchange’s (CCX) first auction of carbon dioxide emission allowances, Secretary Abraham describes the voluntary market-based program as “precisely the kind of private-sector initiative that the Bush Administration has been calling for in response to the climate change challenge.” CCX’s sale of 100,000 metric tons worth of carbon dioxide emission allowances involves the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil.

September 30, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces that a new accelerated environmental cleanup contract has been finalized with Bechtel Jacobs Company LLC for work at sites in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The $1.8 billion five-year cost-plus incentive fee contract is effective October 1, 2003. “This will allow us to have high-risk cleanup work in Oak Ridge completed by 2008,” the Secretary says.

Top of page

October 1, 2003

Secretary Abraham says he remains hopeful Congress will pass an energy bill containing a provision allowing drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The Secretary does not comment on whether the President would veto a bill that did not include ANWR drilling but notes that “there has never been on any issue, to my knowledge, a veto threat referenced.” The chairman of the energy bill conference committee, Senator Pete Domenici, (R-New Mexico), had set October 1 as the deadline for completing work on the measure, but that date is missed due to controversy over select electricity, ethanol, and tax provisions.

October 3, 2003

The Department announces the dedication of a facility that will pioneer a new generation of ultra-clean transportation fuels to significantly reduce tailpipe emissions from cars, trucks and buses. Designed and constructed under the Ultra-Clean Fuels Program, managed by DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, the newly constructed natural gas-to-liquids demonstration facility near Tulsa, Oklahoma, is scheduled to begin production in early November. The facility will produce approximately 4,000 gallons of high-performance, sulfur-free, environmentally friendly transportation fuel per day from 1 million cubic feet of natural gas. “This is a perfect illustration of how government and industry can work together to develop new technologies to meet the Nation’s environmental objectives,” says Secretary Abraham.

October 7, 2003

Alexei A. Abrikosov of DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory is awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics. He shares the award with Vitaly L. Ginzburg of the P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow and Anthony J. Leggett of the University of Illinois, Urbana. “The pioneering scientists’ contributions to the theory of superconductors and superfluids have yielded deep understanding of physical phenomenon that were once both mysterious and perplexing to the scientific community,” notes Secretary Abraham. “Through their efforts, tremendous strides are being made in understanding these processes, leading to the development of new superconducting materials and technologies that have great promise to benefit the entire world.”

October 9, 2003

The Department awards a contract to Isotek Systems, LLC, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to down blend enriched uranium-233 and extract isotopes that show great promise in the treatment of deadly cancers. The contract’s total estimated cost is approximately $128 million dollars over an estimated nine-year period. “DOE has an important responsibility to clean up the legacies from the Cold War,” Secretary Abraham states. “That we can fulfill this mission while producing valuable new tools in the fight against cancer is an exciting and unique opportunity.”

October 15, 2003

The Department announces the selection of 13 projects to make America’s commercial and residential buildings more energy efficient. DOE’s investment of $20.4 million will be combined with over $10 million being contributed by industry partners. The projects, to be completed within three years, will introduce new technologies to reduce costs, lower emissions, and save energy by improving today’s lighting systems, air heating and cooling equipment, windows, water heaters, appliances, and other building components. “These new technologies will save enormous amounts of energy in homes and commercial buildings,” Secretary Abraham says. “The projects cover nearly the full range of building construction: lighting sources, air conditioners, and ventilation systems, windows-and even everyday household appliances.”

October 16, 2003

Following a meeting with Minister of Natural Resources Canada Herb Dhaliwal, Secretary Abraham announces Canada’s support for the International Partnership for the Hydrogen Economy. “We are pleased to learn of Canada’s decision to support the partnership for hydrogen and fuel cell technology research, development, and demonstration activities,” the Secretary says. “International cooperation is key to achieving the hydrogen and fuel cell program goals outlined by President Bush.”

October 22, 2003

Secretary Abraham presents the Enrico Fermi Award to Drs. John Bahcall, Raymond Davis, Jr., and Seymour Sack. The Fermi Award is a presidential award, one of the Federal Government’s oldest and most prestigious science and technology honors administered by the DOE, and recognizes scientists of international stature for their lifetimes of exceptional achievement in the development, use or production of energy. Bahcall and Davis receive the award for their research in neutrino physics. They are the scientists most responsible for the field of solar neutrino physics and neutrino astronomy. Sack is recognized for his contributions to national security. Over a 35-year career at DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sack became one of the foremost designers of nuclear weapons. His design concepts are found in all stockpile weapons. Sack’s design programs introduced insensitive high explosives, fire-resistant plutonium pits, and other state-of-the-art nuclear safety concepts.

October 22, 2003

The Department announces that William D. Magwood, IV, director of DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology, was elected Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). The Steering Committee is the governing body of the NEA. This is only the second time in the 47-year history of the agency that a U.S. official has held the top position. “Last week’s election at the NEA to install a U.S. head, signals the revival of U.S. leadership in worldwide nuclear energy policy,” Secretary Abraham says.

October 22, 2003

FuelCell Energy of Danbury, Connecticut , begins operating the world’s first fuel cell powered by coal mine methane. Funded by the DOE, the demonstration harnesses the power of greenhouse gas pollutant-methane emissions from coal mines-to produce electricity in a new, 21st Century fuel cell. “We believe this technology can reduce coal mine methane emissions significantly while producing clean, efficient, and reliable high-quality power,” Secretary Abraham states. “This has the dual benefit of reducing greenhouse gases while supporting our energy security by generating power from readily available domestic fuels.”

October 24, 2003

Senator Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico), chairman of the energy bill conference committee, cancels a committee meeting to approve a final bill because of a lack of agreement on a multibillion-dollar package of tax incentives. Domenici says the agreement could not be reached on three provisions: reforming how ethanol producers are taxed and how the tax would support the Highway Trust Fund, using tax credits to encourage alternative energy production, and changing tax laws to encourage the construction of new clean coal power plants and upgrades to existing coal plants. Domenici also notes that the House is “insisting” that the conference report gives producers of the gasoline additive MTBE immunity from future liability and adopt “a number of proposals to amend the Clean Air Act.”

October 24, 2003

The Department announces that it has reached an agreement with the State of Washington on the retrieval, storage, and processing of mixed waste at the Hanford Site. The agreement comes after several months of negotiations.

October 27, 2003

The Department begins retrieval of transuranic waste from the low-level burial grounds at Hanford, beating by weeks the first deadline under the October 24 waste cleanup agreement reached with the State of Washington. Workers will retrieve about 38,000 containers (76,000 drum equivalents) in various shapes and stages of integrity. Crews will inspect the containers and characterize their contents to determine the final disposition. Transuranic waste will ultimately be shipped to DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico for disposal; low level and mixed low-level waste will be disposed of in appropriate facilities at Hanford.

October 28, 2003

The Department launches an effort to introduce science students across the country to the promise of hydrogen and fuel cell technology. Students of all ages will be introduced to the basic concepts and principles of hydrogen-based energy in a fun and creative ways to interest them in the vision of a hydrogen economy.

October 29, 2003

The Department announces the removal of the last unit of spent nuclear fuel from the Savannah River Site’s Receiving Basin for Offsite Fuels (RBOF). All of the fuel was moved from the 40-year-old underwater storage basin and placed in safer interim storage in preparation for RBOF’s closure. “I am pleased to see the change in the landscape of how legacy waste and materials are now handled so that future generations will not be unduly burdened with the hazards and costs of winning the Cold War,” Secretary Abraham says.

October 29, 2003

Secretary Abraham meets with California Governor-Elect Arnold Schwarzenegger.

October 30, 2003

President Bush, in a speech at the Central Aluminum Company in Columbus, Ohio, calls on Congress to “resolve your differences” on energy legislation and “get the bill done.” Secretary Abraham meets with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee), and they agree that the energy bill needed to be completed this year. The Secretary calls the “next few days critical” and stresses that the administration’s goal is “just to see where we can be helpful and how we can assist this over the finish line” and not to decide issues for Congress. “We’re not going to try to dictate terms to these members about when specifically they have to be done,” the Secretary says. “We know and appreciate the balancing that has to go on.” He adds that “It would be much harder to come back and start all over again, or even start at the point they’re at after the holiday recess.” The Secretary also meets, individually, with Senator Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico) and Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-Louisiana), leaders of the conference committee.

October 31, 2003

The Department’s Office of Environmental Management reorganizes with the intent of providing greater clarity in the roles and responsibilities of both headquarters and field offices and better performance integration and less redundant levels of oversight. The reorganization significantly flattens the layers of supervision within headquarters, from a 1:5 supervisor staff ratio in January of 2002 to a 1:13 ratio.

Top of page

November 3, 2003

NNSA Administrator Linton Brooks announces the establishment of the Nuclear Radiological Threat Reduction Task Force (NRTRTF). Formed to combat the threats posed by radiological dispersion devices or “dirty bombs,” the NRTRTF has two primary missions: 1) to identify, secure and store on an interim basis high-risk radiological materials that could be used as a radiological dispersal device, both in the United States and overseas, in cooperation with foreign governments; and 2) to establish an inventory of the most vulnerable research reactors worldwide and develop an action plan to effectively meet and mitigate these vulnerabilities. “This threat reduction task force will bring together, under one organization, all of the Department of Energy’s radiological threat reduction efforts both domestically and abroad to ensure much greater effectiveness in meeting radiological threats,” Brooks says. “This task force shows Secretary Abraham’s commitment to meeting the threat posed by nuclear and radiological terrorism on a global basis.”

November 3, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces the appointment of William F. Martin to lead DOE’s Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee (NERAC), an independent panel that provides advice on the direction of the Department’s nuclear program. Martin served as Deputy Secretary of Energy and Executive Secretary of the National Security Council under President Reagan.

November 4, 2003

The International Energy Agency (IEA) in a major new study, World Energy Investment Outlook, projects that an investment of $16 trillion will be needed between 2001 and 2030 in world energy supply infrastructure to meet expected demand. The electricity sector accounts for almost $10 trillion, or 60% of the total, with the oil and gas sectors requiring more than $3 trillion each. “Without new policy actions,” IEA Executive Director Claude Mandil notes, “world energy demand will rise by two-thirds between now and 2030, and the world economy will falter if these energy supplies are not made available.”

November 5, 2003

Secretary Abraham and Russian Atomic Energy Minister Aleksandr Rumyantsev announce the first joint venture project between a U.S. company and a Russian company founded in a closed nuclear city. The groundbreaking project, which furthers the nonproliferation efforts of DOE’s Russian Transition Initiatives (RTI) program, will employ former Russian nuclear scientists to manufacture medical components, equipment and devices. The joint venture between Numotech, Inc., a Northridge, California medical devices company, and Spektr-Conversion, LLC, a Russian entrepreneurial start-up, will make life-changing medical products available to millions of people worldwide. The announcement is made at the DOE-sponsored Partnerships for Prosperity and Security Exhibition and Conference in Philadelphia, where Russian high-level technology is on display.

November 5, 2003

Secretary Abraham and Russian Atomic Energy Minister Aleksandr Rumyantsev address the United Nations First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in New York. The two leaders outline progress that the U.S. and Russia have made in reducing the spread of weapons of mass destruction and ways that “all responsible nations” can overcome present challenges, including those arising from Iran and North Korea.

November 5, 2003

Secretary Abraham announces the DOE selection of 32 new projects to improve energy efficiency in U.S. industry. DOE will invest $61 million over the duration of the projects, while industrial partners will put in more than $54 million for a cost-shared investment worth a total of $115 million over the next three years. Two dozen of these projects will pursue collaborative research, development, and demonstration of new, energy-efficiency technologies; eight will identify opportunities to boost energy efficiency and productivity in industrial plants using technologies and practices available today. “These technologies will improve productivity, save energy and reduce environmental impacts in many energy-intensive industries in the nation today,”

Environmental leaders with the State of New Mexico sought to added stricter conditions for the federal government to continue using a nuclear waste repository in Carlsbad, through the ongoing process to renew of the site’s permit to operate.

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) released a draft of the permit Dec. 20 that will govern operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for the next 10 years.

The release of the draft opened a 60-day period from Dec. 20 to Feb. 18, where the NMED will accept feedback and comments from the public on the proposed permit language.

A public meeting was likely to be held in summer 2023, with the final permit being approved by the end of next year.

Comments can be submitted online at NMED’s website, via email to Ricardo Maestas, WIPP group staff manager at ricardo.maestas@env.nm.gov or via postal mail to Maestas at the NMED Hazardous Waste Bureau 2905 Rodeo Park Drive East Building 1, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

At the WIPP site, the U.S. Department of Energy disposes of transuranic (TRU) nuclear waste via burial in a salt deposit about 2,000 feet underground at the facility about 30 miles east of Carlsbad.

The site first began accepting waste in 1999, and today has taken in 13,193 shipments of waste from DOE sites around the country, records show.

But to continue operating for at least another 10 years, NMED added new conditions to the latest 10-year permit renewal, requiring the DOE to inventory all waste streams intended for disposal at WIPP, prioritizing nuclear waste from New Mexico facilities like Los Alamos National Laboratory and upholding WIPP’s present statutory capacity of 6.2 million cubic feet of waste regardless of any future Congressional action to extend that limit.

In an interview with the Current-Argus, NMED Cabinet Secretary James Kenney said he hoped by shifting the DOE’s priority to dispose of waste it generated in New Mexico first, New Mexicans would get a better benefit for hosting the repository and the risks it brought.

He was critical of the DOE’s previous agreements with states like Idaho and South Carolina that resulted in more waste coming from those states than New Mexico.

“We want to make sure there’s accountability for all permittees, including for New Mexico’s waste which has clearly been devalued,” Kenney said. “This permit right sizes the management of DOE’s operations in New Mexico to allow for a priority for us.

“We’re closing the gap and increasing transparency.”

Kenney said he expected the WIPP site could remain open for the foreseeable future, as the need for waste disposal will continue in the U.S.

To continue operating, Kenney said the DOE must be able to account for how much waste is coming to WIPP and where its coming from, despite the Department’s recent statements that the repository could stay open as long as until 2080 based on potential future waste availability.

He also said the DOE needs to put more effort into finding a new repository after WIPP meets its specified capacity, as a provision was added to the draft permit that would revoke the permit should Congress enact legislation to increase that capacity.

“If Congress was in discussions talking about expanding the capacity, and we’ve not seen anything substantive from the DOE about siting a new repository, it would set up a situation where states including ours would have stranded waste,” Kenney said.

The draft permit also required quarterly public forums to allow the public to learn about and comment on WIPP operations, while requiring meetings be held for modifications to the permit.

“There will definitely be more opportunities for the public to participate,” said Maestas, NMED’s WIPP program manager.

Other provisions added to the permit required monthly surveillance reports from the DOE to NMED on oil and gas operations around WIPP as it is located within the Permian Basin – the U.S.’ most active oil field – along with language to describe two additional disposal panels under construction.

The added panels would not increase WIPP’s capacity under federal law, but would serve to replace space lost to contamination stemming from an accidental radiological release in 2014.

NMED also added terms in the permit giving the department the authority to suspend waste shipments to WIPP if there are allegations of a threat to public health or the environment, or any noncompliance with the permit, and added language requiring the DOE to provide analysis of the causes for any incident related to waste shipments.

“Before waste from this shipping container is disposed at the WIPP facility, the results of the causal analysis must determine no harm to human health and the environment will occur as a result,” read a fact sheet NMED published along with the draft permit.

Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on Twitter.

Return to Timeline of Events: 1991 to 2000

Continue to Timeline of Events: 2002

Jump to month: February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

January 2, 2001

President-elect Bush nominates outgoing Senator Spencer Abraham (R-Michigan) as Secretary of Energy.

January 17, 2001

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces plans to build the second largest wind power facility in the United States on part of DOE’s Nevada Test Site. The MNS Wind Company will build and operate the wind farm on 664 acres of the test site.

January 17, 2001

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members decide to cut oil production quotas by 1.5 million barrels per day. Although displeased with the cuts, Secretary Richardson says that OPEC members have been dissuaded from making even deeper cuts.

January 18, 2001

Secretary of Energy-designate Abraham appears at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Following the hearing, the committee approves the nomination by a unanimous voice vote.

January 19, 2001

The Department announces that DOE, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and the University of California have agreed on new management and operations contracts for the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratories. The move expands and strengthens the contracts’ requirements and extends the contracts for a three-year period.

January 19, 2001

Outgoing Secretary Richardson issues a temporary emergency order, pursuant to provisions of the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 and the Defense Production Act of 1950, requiring certain natural gas suppliers to provide gas to California utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). Some gas suppliers had cut off service or threatened to cut off service to PG&E because of concerns about the company’s financial stability.

January 20, 2001

George W. Bush becomes the 43rd president of the United States. Secretary of Energy-designate Abraham and six other cabinet nominees are confirmed as a group by the Senate in one voice vote. Following the Inaugural Parade, Abraham is sworn in as the tenth Secretary of Energy.

January 22, 2001

In one of his first actions on his first official day of work at DOE, Secretary Abraham greets departmental employees and contractors via electronic mail. He tells them that he is “honored to serve as the 10th Secretary of Energy” and looks forward to meeting them in the days and months ahead. He attaches a copy of his testimony at the confirmation hearing and states that as he has learned more about the Department he has come “to appreciate the dedicated and talented employees that serve our nation in this important mission.”

January 23, 2001

Secretary Abraham issues a two-week extension of emergency orders requiring energy suppler to provide natural gas and electricity supplies to California utility companies. The extension is granted at the request of California Governor Gray Davis in order to provide sufficient time for California to complete actions on steps designed to restore the financial health of the utility companies and develop other sufficient sources of energy. Secretary Abraham and Governor Davis agree that no further extensions will be necessary. Secretary Abraham notes that, while the federal government has provided help to the state, only the state of California can implement the policies necessary to resolve its short term as well as its long term energy supply challenges.

January 29, 2001

President Bush states that he is “deeply concerned” that the economic fallout from the California power crisis will spread beyond the state’s borders. He promises that his administration will “act boldly and swiftly” to bolster the nation’s long-term energy supplies. The President establishes the Energy Policy Development Group, a task force to be chaired by Vice President Richard B. Cheney. Members of the group include Secretary Abraham and other cabinet and senior policy officials. The group is to develop a “national energy policy designed to help the private sector, and government at all levels, promote dependable, affordable, and environmentally sound production and distribution of energy for the future.” DOE is designated as the primary agency supporting the group.

Top of page

February 2, 2001

At a meeting in Portland, Oregon, governors of some of the western states hardest hit by the expanding power crisis ask the Bush administration to set temporary price caps for wholesale electricity. Secretary Abraham says that he has “grave concerns” about a price cap, noting that a price cap would be a disincentive to building more power plants.

February 6, 2001

As part of the new “Power Plant Improvement Initiative” targeted at advanced clean coal technologies, DOE issues a solicitation offering $95 million in federal matching funds for projects that demonstrate ways operators can boost the electricity produced by their power plants or that help the plants meet more stringent environmental standards. Congress added the money for this project to DOE’s budget in fall 2000 when signs of power reliability problems began to surface.

February 26, 2001

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska) and other Senate Republican leaders introduce an energy bill that will provide billions of dollars of tax incentives and spending to boost domestic energy production and allow oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Secretary Abraham commends Senator Murkowski for “moving forward quickly in offering legislation to address this important subject” and states that the Administration looks “forward to working with the Congress to take action together to set the country’s energy policy.”

Top of page

March 1, 2001

Secretary Abraham announces that DOE will provide $125.7 million for winterizing, cold standby, and worker transition programs related to the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Facility. The announcement fulfills a commitment made by President Bush following the United States Enrichment Corporation’s public notice that it would close the Portsmouth, Ohio, facility.

March 6, 2001

Secretary Abraham formally establishes the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve, a two million barrel reserve of government-owned heating oil to be used in cases of extreme circumstances of weather or threat to life. Congress authorized the reserve in November 2000 when it amended the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 2000.

March 8, 2001

On his first foreign trip, Secretary Abraham attends the 5th Hemispheric Energy Initiative Ministerial Conference in Mexico. Following the first-ever trilateral meeting of energy ministers from the United States, Mexico, and Canada, Secretary Abraham, Mexican Energy Secretary Ernesto Martens, and Canadian Energy Minister Ralph Goodale announce the formation of a North American Energy Working Group to begin developing a comprehensive energy strategy. Secretaries Abraham and Martens also announce the activation of the Electricity Working Group to facilitate enhanced cross-border electricity trade between Mexico and the United States.

March 13, 2001

In a letter to four Republican senators, President Bush states that he does not favor the government imposing on power plants “mandatory emissions reductions” for carbon dioxide. He tells the senators that a recent report by DOE’s Energy Information Administration has concluded that including caps on carbon dioxide emissions as part of a multiple emissions strategy would lead to a further shift from coal to natural gas for electric power generation and significantly higher electricity prices.

March 14, 2001

John A. Gordon, administrator of DOE’s NNSA, announces an organization plan designed to improve performance of the core mission to strengthen national security and reduce the global threat from weapons of mass destruction through applications of science and technology. “I commend Administrator Gordon for taking these initial steps to reorganize the NNSA,” Secretary Abraham notes. “The NNSA’s vital national security missions require the best possible management and organization, and I look forward to continuing to work with General Gordon to ensure the success of these important goals.”

March 17, 2001

OPEC members decide to cut oil production quotas by an additional one million barrels per day. Secretary Abraham calls the decision “disappointing.” OPEC’s decision, he observes, “demonstrates the importance of increasing America’s domestic production and developing a national energy policy that will ensure a stable, reliable, affordable and diverse supply of energy.”

March 19, 2001

Secretary Abraham delivers his first major policy speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce National Energy Summit in Washington, D.C. He outlines the challenges America faces in solving its “energy crisis” and presents highlights from an interim report that he and other members of the National Energy Policy Development Group submit to President Bush in a meeting later that day. “The failure to meet this challenge will threaten our nation’s economic prosperity, compromise our national security, and literally alter the way we live our lives,” Secretary Abraham says. “This Administration is fully prepared to face this dire situation, which we inherited, by developing something this country hasn’t seen in years — a comprehensive, long-term national energy policy.” He adds that the national energy policy will be “hemispheric and balanced” and will “stress the need to diversify America’s energy supply. It will be founded on the understanding that diversity of supply means security of supply and that a broad mix of supply options — from coal to windmills, nuclear to natural gas — will help protect consumers against price spikes and supply disruptions.”

March 29, 2001

Secretary Abraham, in a meeting with officials from companies supplying electricity to California, tells them that he expects them to take steps now to minimize chances of a power supply shortage this summer.

Top of page

April 9, 2001

Secretary Abraham releases DOE’s Fiscal Year 2002 budget request to Congress, calling it an “important first step and prudent transition setting a course toward comprehensive change and reform as the department looks to the future.” The 2002 request is virtually the same as the final 2001 DOE appropriation level, and an increase over the Clinton Administration’s 2001 request of $18.9 billion and its 2000 request of $17.8 billion. Of DOE’s four “business lines,” National Security is $7.2 billion, up 2.6 percent from 2001; Energy Resources is $2.3 billion, down 7.9 percent; Environmental Quality is $6.5 billion, down 3.6 percent; and Science and Technology is $3.2 billion, up 0.1 percent.

April 12, 2001

The Department completes action on a 60-day review of two energy conservation and efficiency regulations, one governing clothes washers, and another governing water heaters. DOE declares that the new regulations will result in “savings to consumers, greater environmental stewardship, and power and water conservation for the country.”

April 13, 2001

The Department proposes a new 12/12 Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ration (SEER) standard for central air conditioners and heat pumps to increase the energy efficiency of those systems by 20 percent and minimize costs to consumers.

April 13, 2001

In letters to members of Congress and the California state legislature, Secretary Abraham stresses the constructive actions the Bush Administration has taken to help California address the electricity crisis. The only thing the Administration has opposed, the Secretary notes, is the “imposition of price controls because they would not prevent blackouts and would drive away the new supply California and the West so badly need.”

April 19-20, 2001

Secretary Abraham visits DOE offices and facilities in New Mexico, including the Albuquerque Operations Office and the Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories.

April 25, 2001

Secretary Abraham orders a thorough and comprehensive review of the Fast Flux Text Facility (FFTF) at Hanford, which includes an initial 90-day review of all information that might be relevant to a decision on the future of the FFTF, as well as a review of expressions of interests by public and private groups to commercially operate the facility. DOE in November 2000 had decided to close the FFTF permanently.

Top of page

May 1, 2001

Secretary Abraham establishes an Energy Emergency Task Force within DOE to respond “quickly and appropriately” to any energy emergencies that may occur during the summer.

May 3, 2001

Following a meeting with his energy advisors, President Bush announces that he is directing the federal government to set an example for the rest of the country by taking immediate steps to conserve energy and reduce peak load at its facilities. Secretary Abraham notes that he is traveling to California to meet with the governor and representatives of federal facilities in the state.

May 4, 2001

Secretary Abraham meets in San Francisco with federal government officials to determine ways federal agencies in California can reduce energy demand to help relieve the energy crisis in the state and avert a potential summer electricity shortage.

May 7, 2001

The Department’s Energy Information Administration issues its short-term energy outlook, estimating that average gasoline prices will be even higher than the previous summer’s record highs. “These findings reaffirm the need to develop additional sources of energy while building and maintaining the necessary infrastructure to move those supplies to the market,” notes Secretary Abraham. “The U.S. is far too energy-dependent on foreign resources and our refineries are increasingly strained. Until we take steps to address these problems, we will continue to experience volatility in energy markets and higher prices passed on to consumers at the gas pump.”

May 14, 2001

Secretary Abraham and European Union Commissioner for Research Philippe Busquin sign agreements to conduct joint research in the areas of fusion energy and non-nuclear energy. The non-nuclear science agreement is the first major legally binding agency-to-agency agreement signed under the 1997 U.S./European Union Government-to-Government Science and Technology Agreement. It covers a wide range of potential cooperation in fossil energy, renewable energy, and energy efficiency with an immediate focus on fuel cell technology and carbon sequestration.

May 17, 2001

President Bush releases the National Energy Policy (NEP) developed by his energy task force chaired by Vice President Cheney. NEP urges actions to meet five specific national goals: modernizing conservation, modernizing the energy infrastructure, increasing energy supplies, accelerating the protection and improvement of the environment, and increasing the nation’s energy security. NEP’s 105 recommendations include enacting comprehensive electricity legislation that promotes competition and encourages new generation, implementing a reliable national transmission grid, opening a small portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to regulated oil and natural gas exploration, providing $2 billion over 10 years for clean coal research, expanding nuclear energy by establishing waste repository and streamlining plant licensing, developing hydrogen and fusion energy technology, creating tax credits for hybrid and fuel cell vehicles, increasing funding for renewable energy and energy efficiency programs that are performance-based and cost-shared, and dedicating new funds to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and for the Weatherization Assistance Program. More than 80 of the 105 specific proposals in NEP can be enacted or undertaken through executive branch action.

May 18, 2001

President Bush discusses his energy plan in a speech at the Safe Harbor Water Power Corporation in Conestoga, Pennsylvania. He issues two executive orders implementing National Energy Policy recommendations affecting federal agencies. The first requires agencies to prepare a Statement of Energy Effects on energy supply distribution or use when undertaking certain agency regulatory actions. The second directs agencies to expedite their review of permits for energy-related projects.

May 23, 2001

As part of the National Energy Policy implementation, Secretary Abraham directs that DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy undertake strategic reviews of its research and development programs.

May 25, 2001

In an address to plant employees at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Maryland, Secretary Abraham states that the National Energy Policy embraces an expanded role for nuclear power by recommending that nuclear power plants meeting stringent safety requirements be relicensed as quickly as possible and encouraging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to expedite applications for new advanced-technology reactors. “Nuclear Energy,” the Secretary notes, “is a safe, clean, and efficient form of power generation.”

May 28, 2001

Secretary Abraham directs DOE’s Western Area Power Administration to take the first steps toward building the necessary transmission capacity to relieve the bottleneck in California’s Path 15, an 84-mile stretch of electrical transmission lines connecting Southern California with the northern part of the state. The Secretary’s action implements a National Energy Policy recommendation.

Top of page

June 1, 2001

The Bush Administration asks Congress for $6.1 billion in supplemental appropriations for Fiscal Year 2001. Of this amount, the Administration earmarks $320 million for DOE nuclear weapons, environmental management, and environmental, safety, and health programs.

June 5, 2001

OPEC members decide not to increase production. Secretary Abraham notes that OPEC’s decision demonstrates the importance of implementing the National Energy Policy.

June 11, 2001

On the eve of his first trip to Europe, President Bush announces two new climate change initiatives: the U.S. Climate Change Research Initiative to “study areas of uncertainty and identify priority areas where investments can make a difference” and the National Climate Change Technology Initiative to “strengthen research at universities and national labs, to enhance partnerships in applied research, to develop improved technology for measuring and monitoring gross and net greenhouse gas emissions, and to fund demonstration projects for cutting-edge technologies, such as bioreactors and fuel cells.”

June 20, 2001

DOE releases a report indicating that proposed wholesale electricity price controls in California could double the number of rolling blackouts. “The findings of this report are a clear warning that price controls will not help, but only hurt the situation in California,” Secretary Abraham observes. “Minimizing the number of blackouts ought to be our principal goal because more intense blackouts would greatly imperil the health and safety of California’s citizens and would undermine the state’s economy at least as much as high prices. Our analysis is that blackouts will be worse and last longer if price controls are established.”

June 25, 2001

President Bush announces his intention to nominate John Marburger, III, director of the DOE Brookhaven National Laboratory, as director of the White House’s Office of Science and Technology.

June 25, 2001

Secretary Abraham announces that the DOE Bonneville Power Administration intends to sign pre-development agreements for seven wind power projects, which would provide an additional 830 megawatts of generating capacity in the electricity-strapped Western region. The initiative would produce enough electricity to meet the needs of nearly 270,000 homes and increase the nation’s wind power capacity by approximately 20 percent.

June 28, 2001

President Bush speaks to employees at DOE’s Forrestal building in Washington, D.C. The President announces $85.7 million in federal grants to “accelerate the development of fuel cells, advanced engines, hydro-technology and efficient appliances for American consumers.”

Top of page

July 2, 2001

Secretary Abraham joins with Kentucky officials in leading the groundbreaking ceremony for the new EnviroPower power plant located at Hindman. The plant will be operated with Clean Coal technology.

July 2, 2001

Secretary Abraham announces that the national average price for regular gasoline has fallen to $1.47 per gallon, a drop of 24 cents since May. “Barring any unforeseen problems,” the Secretary notes, “we expect prices to continue to fall by another 5 cents per gallon or more by Labor Day.” He adds that predictions of $3 per gallon gas for the summer were “greatly exaggerated.”

July 9, 2001

Secretary Abraham and Chairman Pascal Colombani of the Commissariat a L’Energie Atomique of France sign a bilateral agreement to jointly fund innovative research in advanced reactors and fuel cycle development.

July 9, 2001

NNSA announces that, according to a recent survey, four of the six fastest supercomputers in the world are in use at DOE laboratories.

July 13, 2001

President Bush announces the first set of actions to advance his June 11 climate change initiatives to further scientific research and spur technological innovation. The President cites the promise of new carbon capture, storage, and sequestration technologies and two new agreements signed between DOE and public and private organizations.

July 18, 2001

The General Accounting Office demands that Vice President Cheney release information on the development of the administration’s energy policy.

July 19, 2001

DOE issues a $385,000 civil penalty to Kaiser Hill Company, LC, operator of the DOE Rocky Flats Environmental Technology site in Denver, Colorado, for violations of rules and procedures designed to assure nuclear safety.

July 23, 2001

Secretary Abraham announces the signing of a formal charter by the United States and governments of leading nuclear nations, including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, Republic of Korea, and the United Kingdom, establishing the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), as an international collective dedicated to the development by 2030 of the next generation of nuclear reactor and fuel cycle technologies. The charter provides the framework to plan and conduct international cooperative research on advanced nuclear energy systems that are safe, reliable, economic, and proliferation-resistant.

July 26, 2001

Secretary Abraham announces changes to DOE headquarters’ management structure and reporting relationships. Among the changes, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and the Office of Policy are combined to create a new Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs, and the Offices of the Chief Financial Officer and Management and Budget are merged and renamed the Office of Management, Budget and Evaluation.

Top of page

August 2, 2001

The House of Representatives passes an energy bill containing major portions of President Bush’s energy plan recommendations. The bill contains $33.5 billion in tax breaks primarily to promote fuel production, opens no more than 2,000 acres of the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration and production, and slightly increases fuel efficiency standards for vehicles. Secretary Abraham notes that passage of the “comprehensive, balanced energy legislation . . . is an important step toward meeting our long-term energy needs and reducing our dependence on foreign sources of energy.”

August 7, 2001

At the National Governors Association (NGA) annual meeting, Secretary Abraham and Michigan Governor John Engler, new chairman of the NGA, announce the establishment of a blue-ribbon Task Force on Electricity Infrastructure that will focus on state policies and regional issues that impact the nation’s energy sector.

August 13, 2001

The National Research Council recommends that the goals of the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) program be reevaluated and updated. PNGV is a partnership between the federal government and the U.S. automotive industry — DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Co., and General Motors Corp. under the umbrella organization, the United States Council for Automotive Research. The program was designed to develop a new generation of vehicles with up to three times the fuel efficiency of conventional cars without compromising performance, affordability, safety, utility, or emissions. “The current goals of the PNGV program include production prototypes for an 80 mile-per-gallon sedan by 2004,” Secretary Abraham notes. “Since roughly half of the light-duty vehicle sales in the U.S. are sport utility vehicles, vans and pickup trucks, the PNGV program is out of step with markets and consumer demand.”

August 13, 2001

At a meeting in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, the Western Governors Association signs a memorandum of understanding with DOE and other relevant federal agencies to work cooperatively on energy development and conservation in the western U.S. The memorandum provides a framework for the signatories to expeditiously work together to resolve both the short term energy crisis in the region and longer-term energy problems.

August 15, 2001

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory dedicates the “world’s fastest supercomputer,” the IBM ASCI White supercomputer with 8,192 processors that perform 12.3 trillion operations per second.

August 15, 2001

DOE releases a Preliminary Site Suitability Evaluation for the proposed Yucca Mountain high-level waste nuclear repository. The study tentatively concludes that the repository would meet radiation standards of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and licensing requirements of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

August 20, 2001

Secretary of Energy Abraham reaffirms the DOE commitment to meeting its responsibilities in the government-to-government relationships between federally recognized American Indian tribes and the Department.

Top of page

September 5, 2001

Secretary Abraham briefs President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox about the ongoing discussions between the United States and Mexico on energy cooperation.

September 11, 2001

Terrorists attack the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. Under the threat of additional assaults, Secretary Abraham orders that all DOE facilities be placed in high-security status. All non-essential DOE personnel are evacuated and sent home. All shipments of nuclear materials are halted; nuclear operations around the country are stopped; and nuclear material is secured. America’s energy infrastructure is monitored, and security at nuclear plants, refineries, pipelines, distribution points, and along the electricity transmission grid is heightened. The nation’s oil and gas supply, including the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, is also monitored.

Over the next several weeks, DOE responds to the disaster by contributing equipment, emergency medical technicians and other assistance in support of rescue efforts. DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory dispatches Fire Department personnel, all trained in confined-space rescue, as well as truck and heavy rescue equipment and several electrical generators to New York City. The DOE Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory sends four emergency services officers to work in the triage area. Working with Federal Emergency Management Agency staff, DOE employees assist in the search for survivors by using Ground Penetrating Radar equipment adapted with motion detection applications. Other DOE teams operate with sophisticated, remotely-operated equipment, including infrared cameras, robotic equipment and fiber optic cameras.

September 17, 2001

In a speech to the 45th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, Secretary Abraham states that the world must ensure that “nuclear materials are never used as weapons of terror.” He notes that “we cannot assume that tomorrow’s terrorist acts will mirror those we have just experienced. This is why the work of the IAEA is so pivotal. Preventing terrorist acts underlies our continuing and robust support for this Agency. We know our security, and that of nations around the world largely depends upon what this Agency does to prevent the proliferation and the misuse of nuclear materials.”

September 17, 2001

Secretary Abraham announces that DOE will invest $30 million over the next three to five years in 11 projects to develop process technology to produce chemicals, plastics, materials and other products from plant matter and other natural waste materials. “Producing marketable industrial products out of plants saves energy, saves nonrenewable resources and creates jobs,” notes the Secretary. “The bioenergy and bioproducts fields hold tremendous potential for environmentally desirable manufacturing and the creation of new jobs in the farm belt.”

Top of page

October 4, 2001

Secretary Abraham announces that DOE-funded researchers have won 26 of the 100 awards given this year by R&D Magazine for the most outstanding technology developments with commercial potential. The researchers winning the awards work at 13 of DOE’s laboratories and facilities across the country.

October 4, 2001

The Department’s Energy Information Administration announces that fuel costs for the upcoming winter should decline across the board for residential use, which will lower heating costs by an average of more than 19 percent. “This is very good news for consumers,” states Secretary Abraham. “There is always a measure of uncertainty in the winter oil prices, even more so in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11th.”

October 10, 2001

Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-South Dakota) halts further Energy and Natural Resources Committee consideration of major energy legislation after concluding there are probably enough votes on the panel to approve the Bush administration’s plan for drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

October 18, 2001

Secretary Abraham today announces a $300 million deal with Pacific Gas & Electric and six other parties to build the upgrade of Path 15 and alleviate California’s major electric transmission bottleneck. Plans call for a 45-45-10 ownership split between public and private firms with DOE’s Western Area Power Administration retaining 10 percent in recognition of its role as project manager.

October 18, 2001

In the keynote address to the Hoover Institution’s Conference on California’s Electricity Problem, Secretary Abraham declares that “so long as I am in this job, I will make sure energy security is my primary concern.” He notes that “access to energy is a military necessity” and that energy security is “perhaps the principal factor . . . in sustaining a robust economy, an economy that’s global and growing.”

October 25, 2001

At the Quarterly Leadership Meeting of senior DOE officials. Secretary Abraham outlines the Department’s missions and priorities. Noting that DOE’s “overarching mission is national security,” the Secretary lists eight priority objectives: identifying new sources of energy for the future, protecting the nation’s critical energy infrastructure, implementing President Bush’s energy plan, implementing the President’s climate change initiative, ensuring the reliability of the nation’s nuclear stockpile, addressing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and technology, enhancing homeland defense against new terrorist threats, and implementing environmental cleanup faster and cheaper.

October 30, 2001

Following the first meeting of the Homeland Security Council, Secretary Abraham states that he has asked the directors of DOE national laboratories to compile a “comprehensive menu of the kinds of research projects in infrastructure protection and counterterrorism.” The Secretary notes that White House Office of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge “recognizes the vast array of assets DOE has at the national labs and at the NNSA.”

Top of page

November 9, 2001

Secretary Abraham establishes the 39-member Electricity Advisory Board that is tasked with providing authoritative advice from across all segments of the electricity industry.

November 13, 2001

President Bush directs Secretary Abraham to increase the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) up to its 700 million barrel capacity using principally royalty oil from federal offshore leases. The President’s directive will add up to 108 million barrels of crude oil to the nation’s emergency oil stockpile. The SPR currently holds approximately 545 million barrels of oil with another 47 million barrels scheduled under previous agreements to arrive over the next 14 months. In the event of a major oil supply disruption, the President can order a release of the crude oil to counter potential economic harm to consumers and to provide fuel for national defense.

November 14, 2001

DOE’s Energy Information Administration issues its long-term energy forecast predicting that 374 gigawatts of additional electric generating capacity will be needed by 2020. This would mean about 1,200 new plants at 300 megawatts each.

November 15, 2001

Secretary Abraham hosts White House Office of Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge on a tour of some of the counterterrorism technologies developed at DOE laboratories. Over two dozen technologies are on display.

November 29, 2001

After two days of meetings in Moscow, Secretary Abraham and Russian Federation Minister of Atomic Energy Alexander Rumyantsev agree to accelerate and expand joint U.S. – Russian efforts to strengthen the protection of nuclear material. The agreement builds on commitments by Presidents Bush and Putin at their recent Crawford, Texas summit and will involve both bilateral efforts and a joint commitment to urge more effective international action.

November 30, 2001

Following press accounts that a draft General Accounting Office (GAO) report is critical of DOE’s handling of the proposed nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain and urges the Bush Administration to postpone indefinitely a decision on building the facility, Secretary Abraham describes the report as “fatally flawed.” He tells David M. Walker, comptroller general of the GAO, that “in the normal course of events, DOE would have had an opportunity to formally comment on its deficiencies, allowing GAO to correct its work product. Our interactions with your staff on this inquiry and the inappropriate, premature release of the draft report,” the Secretary adds, “reinforce my concern that it was assembled to support a predetermined conclusion.”

Top of page

December 2, 2001

Enron Corp, a Houston based energy-trading company ranked No. 7 on Fortune’s list of 500 largest companies, files for bankruptcy. Secretary Abraham states that Enron’s bankruptcy should not affect electricity legislation. “The circumstances do not relate to electricity deregulation,” the Secretary says, adding that “no correlation” exists between Enron’s “business reporting of profits and losses” and deregulation.

December 5, 2001

Senate Democrats propose an alternative energy bill that stresses conservation, efficiency, and development of new resources over expanded drilling on public land, including Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

December 6, 2001

Secretary Abraham expresses his disappointment that energy legislation will not be passed this year. He admonishes the Senate to act on the legislation in January. He states that he is “encouraged by the common ground between the Democratic legislation, the President’s National Energy Plan and the House-passed bill. Where there are areas of disagreement,” the Secretary notes, “the only fair way to resolve those issues is to take an up or down vote. I would urge the Senate to adopt time agreements on those measures and get the job done.” He adds that the Senate should “consider serious proposals to increase domestic exploration and production of oil and gas.”

December 11, 2001

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) files suit in federal court to force DOE to produce documents relating to the development of the Bush Administration’s energy policy. The NRDC now joins Judicial Watch, which filed a similar suit in July, in an effort to gain access to the documents.

December 13, 2001

The Department releases the final phase of a two-part analysis of the natural gas market in the U.S., which indicates that prices should continue to decline through next year and that supplies are expected to increase. Secretary Abraham tasked DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) to conduct the study because of broad concerns about tight supplies, volatile prices, and regional price disparities. “EIA’s analysis is welcome news for U.S. consumers and for our economy,” the Secretary states. “The data clearly shows that the natural gas difficulties of 2000 were not caused by a fundamental inadequacy in the marketplace, such as a serious limitation in stock levels, but by an increase in demand overlaid with a shortage of supply.”

December 19, 2001

After an exhaustive, eight-month review of possible missions and future commercial uses for Hanford’s Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) research reactor, Secretary Abraham announces that the restart of the FFTF is impracticable and that DOE will proceed with the deactivation of the facility.

December 19, 2001

A U.S. Department of Defense report, prepared with DOE assistance, on how nuclear weapons could be modified to attack hardened bunker complexes and buried tunnels that conventional weapons cannot destroy is made public. The report was sent to Congress in October, but no decision has been made to go ahead with such a program.

Return to Timeline of Events: 1991 to 2000

Continue to Timeline of Events: 2002