Todd Jacobson
WC Monitor
4/3/2015

White House nuclear energy official Joyce Connery and nuclear industry veteran Bruce Hamilton have emerged as the top candidates to fill the two vacant spots on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, WC Monitor has learned. Connery, who most recently has served as the director of Nuclear Energy Policy for the National Security Council, would be nominated as the chair of the DNFSB, filling the spot left vacant when Peter Winokur departed several months ago. Hamilton would replace the late Ken Mossman to complete the five-member Board. Both Connery and Hamilton would need to be confirmed by the Senate. DNFSB Vice Chairman Jessie Roberson has been serving as the acting chairman of the Board since Winokur retired.

Connery was influential in helping organize the Nuclear Security Summit process for the Obama Administration, and her most recent stint at the National Security Council is her second. She also served on the NSC staff from 2008 to 2010 before serving as a senior advisor to Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Poneman. Prior to 2008 she was a senior policy advisor in NNSA’s Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation.

Hamilton served on nuclear-powered cruisers and aircraft carriers during a 24-year career in the Navy, and after retiring in 2002, he joined Luminant, eventually heading up Fuelco LLC from 2009 to 2013. Fuelco was Luminant’s joint venture with Ameren Missouri and Pacific Gas and Electric, which served as a broker between Russia’s TENEX and its U.S. subsidiary, TENAM Corp.