Marvin Adams on Monday officially became the deputy administrator for defense programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, sworn in by Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm over video conference five days after the Senate unanimously confirmed him for the job.
The semiautonomous DOE nuclear-weapons agency announced the swearing-in in a press release. This marks Adams’ first stint in the federal civil service. He’ll be responsible for managing the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) bread-and-butter nuclear weapons programs, taking over with the agency in the middle of a drive to rebuild its weapons-production infrastructure during a decade where five nuclear weapons have to be refurbished to last decades more in the field.
“We are excited to have Marv and his creative thinking at NNSA HQ,” NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby said in the release.
Adams got on the job about four months after the White House announced President Joe Biden’s intention to nominate the former Texas A&M professor of nuclear engineering for the post. Adams replaces Charlie Verdon, who had served since 2018.
In his confirmation hearing March 22, Adams said he would review the NNSA’s plans to build a pair of plutonium pit production plants, which has fallen a few years behind schedule.
According to his CV, Adams was most recently HTRI Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Director of National Laboratories Mission Support at the Texas A&M University System, where he has been a member of the faculty for about 30 years. Prior to that, Adams worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for about five years. He got his masters and PhD in nuclear engineering from the University of Michigan.
