Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
5/29/2015
Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy Peter Lyons will step down from his position at the end of June, according to an internal memo from Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz this week. Lyons has served in his current role since 2011 and contributed widely to the Administration’s current waste management strategy involving the consent-based siting of an interim storage facility. “It is with sincere gratitude that we announce that after 46 years of service to the government and national laboratory system, Assistant Secretary Pete Lyons will retire at the end of June,” Moniz said in the memo. “Pete has been a tremendous public servant throughout his stellar career, and all who have had the privilege of working with and getting to know him through these decades understand that he has been not only a dedicated and accomplished scientist and leader of the highest order, but also one of the most decent and kind individuals one will meet in government service. We will miss him.”
According to Moniz, current Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary John Kotek will serve as the acting Assistant Secretary following Lyons’ departure. It remains unclear if the Obama Administration plans to nominate Kotek or someone else for the position, or if it would proceed with Kotek as the acting head of the Office of Nuclear Energy until the next Administration. Kotek previously served as the former staff director for the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future. In that role, Kotek helped form the report that much of the nation’s current waste management strategy draws from. There is expectation within the industry that with Kotek taking over the Office of Nuclear Energy, there will be a renewed push for a FedCorp model of spent fuel disposal, with a government corporation taking over responsibility for disposal from DOE.
