Senate backs ALMR/IFR funding; bill goes to conference

When September ended, so did the federal government's fiscal year 1993 - officially. The Department of Energy did not have an appropriation, passed by both Houses of Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton, to take it into FY 1994, but as debate wore on in Congress, a joint resolution was passed to keep the DOE functioning through October 15. By that time, it was hoped, both Houses would have worked out a consensus DOE budget in a conference committee. Action in the Senate in late September assured that the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) program, and the advanced liquid metal reactor (ALMR) technology that the IFR incorporates, would have one last chance to survive