The White House this week announced its nominees to fill the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s two open executive seats, including one former commissioner who left the agency last summer.
If Annie Caputo and Bradley Crowell’s nominations, which the Joe Biden administration announced in a press release Tuesday, get through Congress, they would fill two seats on NRC’s executive committee that have been vacant for nearly a year.
The commission, chaired by Christopher Hanson, has been just three of five members strong since Caputo left the agency in June at the end of her three-year term. NRC’s fifth member, Kristine Svinicki, left her post in January 2021.
Currently, Caputo is consulting with the Idaho National Laboratory on international cooperation for advanced nuclear reactors. Following her time at NRC, she also advised the Senate Armed Services Committee on issues related to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s infrastructure.
Crowell is the director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, a position that he’s held since 2016. Crowell was also assistant secretary of energy for congressional and intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Energy under the Obama administration. Prior to that, he worked for both Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and former Nevada governor and Sen. Richard Bryan (D-Nev.).
A spokesperson for NRC declined to comment on Caputo and Cromwell’s nominations. As of Wednesday afternoon, they had not yet been formally delivered to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee.
Meanwhile, nuclear professional organization the American Nuclear Society (ANS) chimed in in a statement Tuesday to applaud the White House for taking steps to fill the vacancies at NRC.
“The American Nuclear Society has consistently highlighted the need for a full commission of qualified individuals,” ANS president Steven Nesbit and CEO Craig Piercy said. “We look forward to hearing the nominees’ views on how they will ensure the NRC continues to carry out its mission of ensuring public health and safety.”
