The head of the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration was set to retire Friday, and the Department of Energy has declined to identify his successor.
As Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor’s sister publication, Weapons Complex Morning Briefing, first reported last week, longtime government man and retired Air Force general Frank Klotz will retire from federal service altogether after four years leading the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the semiautonomous agency in charge of DOE’s nuclear weapons and nonproliferation programs.
William “Ike” White, Klotz’s chief of staff and associate principal deputy administrator, is the next-highest-ranking NNSA official after Klotz, but it is uncertain whether he will step into the leadership role. The NNSA and DOE declined multiple requests for comment this week about the line of succession.
Klotz, meanwhile, vowed to remain a part of the national nuclear conversation and invited those interested in hearing what he has to say post-NNSA to follow him on Twitter.
I plan to remain active in the national conversation on #nuclear and energy security. I invite you to follow me @FrankGKlotz.
— Frank Klotz (@FrankKlotzNNSA) January 19, 2018
“It has been one of the greatest honors of my career to serve alongside the women and men who work at NNSA,” Klotz wrote in a farewell note posted on the agency’s website Friday.
Klotz was the second-longest-serving NNSA administrator since Congress created the quasi-independent DOE nuclear-weapon agency in 2000. Thomas D’Agostino, his immediate predecessor, was the longest-serving NNSA administrator to date. Nominated by then-President George W. Bush, D’Agostino served nearly five-and-a-half years in the top spot, mostly during the Barack Obama administration. Obama nominated Klotz on Jan. 6, 2014, and the Senate confirmed him on April 8 of that year.
Trump in December nominated former DOE and National Security Council staffer Lisa Gordon-Hagerty to replace Klotz at the NNSA. She still awaits a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee and a confirmation vote on the Senate floor.
