Jeffrey Baran, who lost his job at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2023, will join the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management on Sept. 8, according to an internal email.
When he arrives at DOE headquarters in Washington, Baran will be deputy assistant secretary for waste and materials management, or EM-4.2, in the Office of Environmental Management (EM).
Among other things, the deputy assistant secretary for waste and materials management is responsible for identifying potential disposal sites for waste that is or was classified as high-level radioactive waste but is determined not to be high-level radioactive waste under DOE’s 2021 reinterpretation of federal law.
Baran will report to Kristin Ellis, EM’s associate principal deputy assistant secretary for regulatory and policy affairs. Ellis announced Baran’s hiring in an email to EM staff, which the Exchange Monitor saw this week.
Baran will replace Justin Marble and Julia Shenk, each of whom was recently the acting assistant secretary for waste and materials management, Ellis said. Marble is the head of EM’s National Transuranic Waste Management Program and Shenk runs EM’s Packaging and Transportation office in Washington, according to an EM organization chart.
Baran had been a commissioner of the NRC until June 30, 2023, when his term expired after he failed to get enough support in the Senate to serve for another five years.
Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Shelley Capito (R-W.Va.), painted Baran as an obstructionist to what they viewed as a burgeoning nuclear-energy renaissance. Baran had been on the NRC since 2014 and was at the time its longest-serving commissioner.
Baran holds a juris doctor from Harvard Law School and masters and bachelors degrees in political science from Ohio University. He worked on Capitol Hill prior to joining the NRC and as a law clerk in federal court before that.
