BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
The President’s Budget for FY2027 has been released and indicates a request of $32.8 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, and $8.2 billion to address legacy waste and contamination in communities that housed nuclear waste production during the Manhattan Project and the Cold War.
The following is taken directly from the Budget document:
“The era of wasting taxpayer dollars on unreliable, expensive energy that is dependent on foreign supply chains is over. The U.S. Government will no longer subsidize intermittent energy forms that destabilize the grid or Green New Scam projects that increase consumer costs and promote radical leftist policies. Instead, the Budget pushes an aggressive America First agenda that would combat foreign influence through robust domestic critical material supply chains, as well as revitalize the Nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) as a valuable national energy asset. Underlying virtually all of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) efforts is a $1.2 billion commitment to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the ways it can improve energy systems and outcomes across the DOE enterprise.
“The Budget requests $53.9 billion in discretionary budget authority for DOE, a $4.8 billion or nearly 10-percent increase from the 2026 enacted level excluding the Working Families Tax Cut Act (WFTC) funding. Within the requested amount, $32.8 billion is allocated to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a $3.6 billion or 12-percent increase from the 2026 enacted level (including WFTC funding), which highlights America’s unwavering resolve to strengthen the U.S. nuclear deterrent—the cornerstone of America’s defense against threats from adversaries. The remaining $21.1 billion reflects a $2.7 billion or 11-percent reduction from the 2026 enacted level, achieved by slashing Green New Scam initiatives and rooting out woke diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Environmental Management (–$386 million): The Budget provides $8.2 billion to address legacy waste and contamination in communities that housed nuclear weapons production during the Manhattan Project and the Cold War, including $3 billion to continue cleanup progress at the Hanford site in Washington. The reduction in funding reflects a strategic focus on near-term, critical path cleanup milestones. For example:
- Reductions focus on operating the new Direct Feed Low-Activity Waste Facility to reduce liability rather than accumulating unobligated balances for partially designed facilities.
Bolstering Energy Dominance (+$4.7 billion): The Budget repurposes Green New Scam funding from Biden-era Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) legislation to make energy more abundant and affordable. This includes $3.5 billion to rapidly deploy from baseload power and $1.2 billion for AI to support seven AI supercomputers at the Argonne and Oak Ridge National Laboratories.
Strengthening Nuclear Security (+$3.6 billion): The Budget focuses NNSA on its most important mission—producing a robust, credible, and modern nuclear deterrent that protects the American people. The United States must maintain and expand its set of nuclear capabilities that allow the President flexibility to protect the homeland and deter adversaries. Specifically, the Budget makes strong investments to develop new warheads that would bolster deterrence, modernize NNSA’s supporting infrastructure, and extend the life of existing warheads. The Budget also enables NNSA to develop next-generation reactor technology for future naval systems, while also improving NNSA’s capability to keep America safe from radiological and nuclear terrorism through the Nuclear Emergency Support Team.
Driving Domestic Critical Minerals Production (+$394 million): The Budget supports targeted spending to develop a domestic supply of critical minerals using America’s abundant natural resources. This includes critical minerals production and processing pilot scale demonstrations that, when commercialized, would work to secure supply chains that are vulnerable to coercion by foreign adversaries.
Office of Science (–$1.1 billion): The Budget eliminates funding for climate change and Green New Scam research while maintaining U.S. competitiveness in priority areas such as high-performance computing, AI, quantum information science, fusion, and critical mineral research. The Budget would:
- Stop wasting Biological and Environmental Research resources on climate change and focus funding on advancing biotechnology and AI-enabled earth-energy system modeling to support the Energy Dominance agenda;
- Reduce funding for the over budget international fusion experiment called ITER and redirect savings to domestic fusion technologies that demonstrate performance;
- and provide no funding to Minority Serving Institutions for the Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce initiative, a discriminatory DEI program to “diversify American leadership in the physical sciences, including energy and climate.