The Senate has confirmed Douglas Weaver to fill the final vacancy on the five-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a 71 – 29 vote Wednesday evening.
The confirmation vote came after the Senate invoked cloture on Weaver’s nomination in a 69 – 27 vote. Weaver will now serve the remainder of former commissioner Annie Caputo’s term, which is set to expire on June 30, 2026.
Caputo resigned from the NRC this summer.
Most recently running his own regulatory consulting firm, Weaver also formerly worked at the NRC for nearly 20 years. He began at the agency as a reactor engineer in 1993. In 2012, Weaver retired from NRC, serving as deputy director and acting director of the division of spent fuel storage and transportation then.
Now confirmed, Weaver will join Bradley Crowell, Ho Nieh, Matthew Marzano and David Wright on the commission. Nieh was sworn in at NRC on Dec. 4.
Senate Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said Weaver was qualified to be a member of NRC and looked forward to the commission returning to full strength.
“With almost 40 years of experience in the nuclear industry, beginning in the Nuclear Navy, then at the NRC and finally in private industry, Mr. Weaver is well-prepared to support the NRC’s important work as a commissioner,” Capito said in a Wednesday statement. “He fully understands the complexities of the challenges that the Commission is currently facing and is aware of the various avenues available to address those challenges.”
Weaver enjoyed a relatively quick and smooth confirmation process.
Weaver was first nominated by President Donald Trump on Nov. 5. He soon testified at the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Dec. 3, where he pledged to the committee that he would prioritize nuclear safety and maintain NRC’s independence.
A week later, Weaver advanced through the Senate committee by a 15 – 4 vote. During that business meeting, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said that he received two sets of responses from Weaver for his questions for the record. Though Whitehouse was perplexed by the situation at hand, he voted in favor of Weaver’s nomination.
Whitehouse also voted in favor of Weaver’s confirmation, during the full Senate vote.
Breakthrough Institute Founder and Executive Director Ted Nordhaus congratulated Weaver on his confirmation via a X post Wednesday.
“The commission is now back to a full suite of five commissioners at a critical moment for the NRC,” Nordhaus said. “Three of the five, notably, are nuclear engineers, with naval and/or commercial experience as nuclear reactor operators. Two have long experience as senior regulators. It has been a long time since the commission had this level of deep technical and regulatory expertise.”
Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told Exchange Monitor Thursday that the organization is confident Weaver will stay true to his pledges of maintaining NRC’s independence and ensuring nuclear safety.
“We trust Mr. Weaver will fulfill the commitments he made to Congress to uphold the NRC’s independence and focus on nuclear safety in the face of pressure from the Trump administration and the industry to merely serve as a rubber stamp,” Lyman said.