A Senate Appropriations Committee staffer and former Department of Energy nuclear fuel cycle specialist confirmed Tuesday he is being considered for nomination to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
An informed source said Christopher Hanson is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) preferred candidate to fill the vacancy created when Commissioner Stephen Burns retires on June 30 at the end of his current term.
Contacted Tuesday, Hanson said he had not heard that, but acknowledged he had been contacted by Senate Democratic leadership. The next member of the five-person commission will be a Democrat or independent, in keeping with the requirement that no more than three commissioners come from one political party: Current Chairman Kristine Svinicki and Commissioners Annie Caputo and David Wright are Republicans.
“I consider it a privilege to serve Senator Leahy, Senator Feinstein, and the other members of the Appropriations Committee and I am happy to continue to do so,” Hanson said by email Tuesday. “Should the Democratic Leader, Senator Carper, and the other members of the Environment and Public Works Committee wish to consider me for another position, I would be pleased and honored to be so considered.”
Other names also in the mix, the source said, are: Joyce Connery, a member and former chair of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), and Mary Louise Wagner, a former DOE senior policy adviser and current Democratic staff director at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
A DNFSB spokesperson on Wednesday morning said Connery had no comment on the matter.
Schumer’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the process for submitting one or more potential candidates to the White House for formal nomination. There was also no word from the White House.
Hanson has been a minority staff member on the Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee since February 2015. Prior to that, he was a DOE detailee to the subcommittee for 14 months and held other positions at the department for nearly five years.
