President Joe Biden (D) on Tuesday announced his intent to nominate Senate staffer Matthew Marzano to be a Member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and fill the agency’s last vacancy.
Marzano is an Idaho National Laboratory detailee on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee where he advises lawmakers about clean air, climate and energy, the White House said.
As of Tuesday, Biden had not sent Marzano’s nomination to the Senate. Once the President does, the Senate Environment and Public Works will hold a hearing to consider Marzano’s nomination, vote on the nomination and, assuming they approve the nomination, turn Marzano over to the full Senate for final confirmation.
Marzano recently advised the committee on the ADVANCE Act, a series of nuclear reforms signed into law in early July and which is intended among other things to prepare the NRC for a surge in new nuclear reactor models.
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), the chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, supported Marzano’s nomination in a press release Tuesday.
“I have seen first-hand how Matt applies his background as a nuclear engineer every day in his work on nuclear energy policy,” Carper wrote in the release. “He is a dedicated public servant who knows how to work across the aisle and deeply understands the mission of the NRC.”
Marzano has more than a decade of experience with civilian and defense nuclear power systems, including in the Department of Energy’s Naval Nuclear Reactors Program, the Braidwood Nuclear Power Station in Illinois and the V.C. Summer plant in South Carolina, according to the White House nomination statement. He came to Congress as an American Nuclear Society congressional fellow.
Marzano has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Florida, the White House said.
