Tom D’Agostino, former administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, has joined the board of directors of small modular reactor company NuScale Power, the company announced Monday.
D’Agostino, who served as head of the NNSA from 2007 to 2013, replaces former board member Dave Dunning, NuScale said in a press release. He has been with global engineering company Fluor since 2013, and was recently promoted to head of the company’s Government Group.
D’Agostino previously was deputy administrator for NNSA’s defense programs, in charge of the agency’s stockpile stewardship program, and has worked to launch the Energy Department’s tritium production reactors and the Naval Sea Systems Command.
John Hopkins, chairman and CEO of NuScale Power, said in a statement that D’Agostino “will help us in leading the way in the development of small modular reactors, which will strengthen energy independence and national security while meeting clean air goals.”
Fluor is the majority investor in NuScale, an Oregon-based venture that is working to develop “a new kind of nuclear plant; a safer, smaller, scalable version of pressurized water reactor technology,” the company said.
The Energy Department in December 2013 selected NuScale as the winner of a cost-sharing program to develop small modular reactor technology, awarding the company $217 million in matching funds over five years to accelerate development of its NuScale Power Module technology.