Independent nuclear waste board members asked to resign
Nuclear Newswire has learned that the Trump administration last week requested that all members of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board resign, except for the board’s chair, Peter Swift.
A member of the NWTRB who asked not to be identified shared the following email that was sent to board members from the White House Office of Personnel Management:
On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to request your resignation as a Member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. Please submit your resignation to me by the close of business on Thursday, January 23, 2025. If we have not received your resignation by that time, your position will be terminated. Should the President determine your services are still needed, you will receive additional correspondence.
Trent Morse, Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel
“I opted not to resign, and so far have not heard anything new about my status,” the board member told Nuclear Newswire.
By law, board members may continue to serve until they are reappointed or until their replacements are appointed by the president.
The NWTRB has not responded to questions on the administration’s actions.
The board: An independent federal agency in the executive branch of the federal government, the NWTRB was established by the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1987 to evaluate the technical and scientific validity of Department of Energy activities related to managing and disposing of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
The board is composed of 11 members, who serve on a part-time basis. There is currently one board vacancy. Members are appointed to four-year terms by the president from a list of candidates submitted by the National Academy of Sciences. Nominees to the board are selected solely on the bases of established records of distinguished professional service and eminence in a field of science or engineering.
Current members: In September 2024, President Biden appointed six new members to the NWTRB, including Swift, a consulting geoscientist and former senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, and ANS member Lake Barrett, an independent consultant who previously served as head of the DOE’s Office of Civilian Nuclear Waste Management.
Also appointed were Richelle Allen-King, professor of geological sciences at the University at Buffalo–State University of New York; Miles Greiner, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Nevada–Reno and ANS member; Silvia Jurisson, professor emerita of chemistry and radiology at the University of Missouri; and Seth Tuler, associate professor in the Department of Integrative and Global Studies Division at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.
The remaining four active board members were all appointed by Biden in October 2022: Ronald Ballinger, professor emeritus of nuclear science and engineering and materials science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Nathan Siu, an independent risk assessment consultant and former senior technical advisor for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Scott W. Tyler, professor emeritus in the Department of Geological Sciences and Engineering at the University of Nevada–Reno; and Brian Woods, the school head of and professor in the School of Nuclear Science and Engineering at Oregon State University.
