The lion's share of the funds -- about US$9.1 billion -- goes to securing US nuclear weapon stockpiles. Funding for energy resource initiatives fell 10 percent to US$3.65 billion, while funding for science programs rose 19 percent to US$4.7 billion.

The budget requests big funding boosts for research into high energy physics, nuclear physics and basic energy sciences, which saw funding rise 19 percent to US$1.57 billion.

A separate low-income energy assistance program overseen by the Health and Human Services Department fell 22 percent to US$2 billion.

Nuclear energy initiatives saw increases across the board, and research into clean coal initiatives rose 40 percent to US$818 million. Building a long-delayed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada would get about US$495 million in funds in 2009. The Energy Department plans to submit a license request for Yucca Mountain to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission later this year.

Capturing carbon emissions from coal plants and socking them away in underground reservoirs was at the top of the department's 2009 priority list. Carbon sequestration research got US$400 million in funds, along with US$241 million for demonstration projects.