
James McConnell is the new No. 3 and top career civil servant at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the semi-autonomous Department of Energy nuclear-weapons agency said before New Year’s. McConnell was appointed associate principal deputy administrator in December, according to the NNSA website. In that role he would backstop the agency’s politically appointed administrator and principal deputy administrator if either of those people leave or could not do their jobs managing the civilian nuclear-weapons steward. McConnell was most recently…