The new head of the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy said Thursday she still plans to hire nuclear activist and advocate Sam Brinton.
Newly-sworn-in Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy Kathryn Huff confirmed her intentions during an interview with RadWaste Monitor.
Brinton, who identifies variously as male and female and uses the third-person pronoun them, was a subject of controversy among at least one DOE employee at headquarters, who in February formally complained that Brinton lacked the experience to be deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition at DOE.
In January, Brinton said they had been hired for that Senior Executive Service (SES) role, known as NE-8 for short. If hired, Brinton, in their mid-thirties, would enter government service for the first time after a career in nuclear and LGBT advocacy and graduate studies in nuclear engineering and technology policy at MIT.
As of Thursday, Brinton’s LinkedIn still identifies them as global political affairs director at nuclear waste technology company Deep Isolation.
The anonymous DOE employee told the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) that there had been “substantial irregularities” in Brinton’s hiring and that “undue political influence and preferences were applied” at the agency to select Brinton for the role. So far, OPM has not said whether it is investigating the complaint. Brinton has repeatedly declined to comment.
Meanwhile, DOE had sought to fill the NE-8 job on an acting basis. According to a job listing obtained in April by RadWaste Monitor, the agency said it wanted a 120-day detailee for the position and was reviewing candidates that already have a GS-15 pay grade or that completed the SES Candidate Development Program — credentials that Brinton lacked.
As of Thursday, the Office of Nuclear Energy’s website lists Kim Petry as acting NE-8, a position she has held since July 2021.
