House appropriators this week will weigh the financial needs of U.S. regulators in upgrading safety at the country's reactors as the one-year anniversary of the Japanese nuclear disaster arrives on March 11.

Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, will testify before a House Appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday about the agency's fiscal 2013 budget request. Peter Lyons, the Energy Department's assistant secretary of Energy in the Office of Nuclear Energy, is also slated to testify.

The Obama administration stepped up its fiscal 2013 funding request to allow the agency to implement an internal task force's recommendations stemming from Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Three reactors at the Japanese plant were crippled by a magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami last March, triggering radioactive leaks and multiple evacuations.

NRC is seeking more than $1 billion in the budget, an increase of $15 million from the current spending level (E&ENews PM, Feb. 13). The commission recovers most of its budget authority through fees from applicants that are seeking or currently hold licenses.

About $10 million is directly tied to NRC's efforts to implement the Fukushima task force's recommendations, including provisions to cool reactors during extensive periods of lost power and to protect equipment from earthquakes, flooding and other natural disasters.

The NRC staff has crafted rules to boost safety in response to the Japanese disaster, and the five-member commission is currently voting on the first tier of those proposals -- including provisions to protect reactors from earthquakes and other natural disasters, ensure spent-fuel pools have appropriate equipment and ensure the reliability of reactor vents.

Lyons will discuss the Obama administration's request for more than $770 million for DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy, including $10 million from the Nuclear Waste Fund.

Those funds will help the agency design and license small modular reactors and establish an "innovation hub" at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, which will allow researchers to simulate a nuclear power plant and better understand how reactors function.

DOE is also asking for $60 million to follow up on recommendations from President Obama's Blue Ribbon Commission, an expert panel that released its final proposals in January for storing and disposing of more than 65,000 metric tons of waste. Obama assembled the panel after abandoning the highly controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear dump in Nevada.

The Blue Ribbon Commission earlier this year urged the administration to change its 1987 amendment to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act that names Yucca Mountain as the nation's sole repository and to begin looking for new places to store nuclear waste. The panel also said interim storage sites and additional repositories should be designated through a consent-based process.

Last month, the administration assembled an internal working group within DOE to formulate a strategy for storing and disposing of nuclear waste from the country's 104 nuclear reactors. Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner, DOE's assistant deputy undersecretary for counterterrorism and counterproliferation, will lead the group, and Energy Secretary Steven Chu is expected to recommend a strategy later this summer for managing the nation's nuclear waste.

DOE is also proposing to slash funding for nuclear research at the national labs, a decision agency officials had to defend last week against House members who said the cuts went too deep (E&E Daily, March 2).

House appropriators will also hear this week from regulators overseeing the national nuclear weapons stockpile. Officials from the National Nuclear Security Administration will testify before the House Energy and Water Development Subcommittee tomorrow.

The Obama administration in its fiscal 2013 budget request sought $11.5 billion for NNSA, an increase of $536 million over the current spending level. The semiautonomous agency within DOE oversees the country's nuclear weapons, advances nuclear nonproliferation and provides nuclear propulsion for the U.S. Navy. A bulk of the funding boost would go toward stockpile stewardship and defense nuclear nonproliferation activities.

Obama is working to reduce the country's nuclear weapons stockpile. NNSA is dismantling weapons and plans to secure vulnerable nuclear material around the world.

NNSA has been working to improve relationships at this national labs after a report revealed a lack of trust between contractors and lab staff, namely at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

Notably, the lab announced last month that it planned to cut 5 to 10 percent of its workforce -- up to 800 workers -- to cope with a $300 million budget cut (Greenwire, Feb. 22).

Schedule: The NNSA hearing is tomorrow at 10 a.m. in 2362-B Rayburn.

Witnesses: National Nuclear Security Administration chief Thomas D'Agostino, Deputy NNSA Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Anne Harrington and Adm. Kirkland Donald, director of Naval Reactors.

Schedule: The NRC and DOE hearing is Wednesday, March 7, at 10 a.m. in 2362-B Rayburn.

Witnesses: Peter Lyons, assistant secretary of Energy in the Office of Nuclear Energy, and Gregory Jaczko, chairman of NRC.