President Obama will name Warren Miller, a nuclear engineering professor at Texas A&M University, to be assistant secretary for nuclear energy at the Energy Department, sources said last week.
DoE and White House officials declined comment Thursday on Miller’s possible appointment; Miller was not immediately available for comment.
Miller would take over at an interesting time for DoE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, which leads federal research on next-generation reactors, spent fuel reprocessing and other advanced nuclear technologies.
Although Energy Secretary Steven Chu says nuclear power will remain an important part of the nation’s energy mix, many nuclear advocates question the administration’s support for nuclear, particularly given President Obama’s decision to scuttle the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project, an industry priority.
The administration also proposed cuts to many nuclear programs in DoE’s fiscal 2010 budget, although it did boost funding for the development of advanced gas-cooled reactors.
Miller, 66, spent the bulk of his career at DoE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, beginning work at the nuclear weapons facility in 1972 and rising to become associate director of energy programs and deputy director for science and technology, among other positions. He left the lab in 2001.
In related news, the Senate last week confirmed several more top DoE nominees, including Kristina Johnson, formerly the provost at John Hopkins University, to be under secretary for energy; former BP executive Steven Koonin as under secretary for science; Scott Harris as general counsel; and Ines Triay as assistant secretary for environmental management.