President Donald Trump this week nominated a former fed, Douglas Weaver, to serve as a commissioner for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
If confirmed, Weaver would take over the vacated position of former NRC commissioner Annie Caputo, who officially resigned in early August. The term will expire on June 30, 2026.
Weaver’s nomination was sent to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday. A date has not been set for his nomination hearing yet.
Prior to the nomination, Weaver worked at NRC for almost 20 years serving in various management roles. He began in 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.
According to Weaver’s Linkedin profile, he has spent nearly a decade in the private sector of the nuclear industry. He operated as the vice president of licensing and regulatory affairs at Holtec International for several months.
From 2013 to 2022, Weaver worked at Westinghouse Electric Company as the vice president of its global nuclear regulatory affairs. Since 2023, Weaver has been running his own nuclear regulatory consulting firm, Atomic Safety.
Weaver earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Princeton University in New Jersey. He also served in the United States Navy.
The new NRC nomination comes as fellow NRC nominee Ho Nieh awaits a full Senate vote to confirm him as a commissioner. Nieh passed through the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in a 13 – 6 vote on Oct. 29.
If Nieh and Weaver are both confirmed, then the agency’s commission will be at full capacity with five commissioners for the first time since early June.
On June 13, Trump terminated former commissioner Christopher Hanson and the following month Caputo announced her resignation.