David Huizenga, a longtime manager in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nonproliferation branch, will be promoted to the third-highest career post at the nuclear weapons agency effective Monday, the semiautonomous Department of Energy branch announced Friday.
In his new role as associate principal deputy administrator, Huizenga will be able to run the agency on an interim basis in the event that the two politically appointed posts above him are simultaneously vacant. Huizenga will not be chief of staff to NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, as his predecessor, William “Ike” White was.
White is leaving the NNSA at Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s direction to oversee the legacy nuclear-weapon cleanup portfolio managed by DOE’s Environmental Management office.
Perry tapped White to be senior advisor to DOE Undersecretary for Science Paul Dabbar after the Senate-confirmed Anne Marie White resigned on June 14 as assistant secretary for environmental management. Anne White was on the job for only about 15 months.
Sources said Dabbar was unhappy that Anne White spent too much time discussing the possible radioactive contamination of a Pike County, Ohio, middle school located near the shuttered Portsmouth uranium enrichment campus.
In the senior adviser role, Ike White will not need to be confirmed by the Senate to oversee the Environmental Management office’s roughly $7 billion-a-year operation.
Meanwhile, Kasia Mendelsohn will replace Huizenga as NNSA principal assistant deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation. As the No. 2 nonproliferation official in the NNSA, Mendelsohn will assist Brent Park, the deputy administrator for nonproliferation, with running the agency’s portfolio of programs to prevent and halt the spread of fissile materials to bad actors. The nonproliferation branch has roughly $2-billion-a-year in annual funding.
“I am confident that Ike, Dave and Kasia will excel in their new roles and their extensive leadership and technical experience will further strengthen DOE and NNSA,” Gordon-Hagerty said in a statement provided to NS&D Monitor.
Editor’s note, Friday, June 14, 4:05 p.m. Eastern: The story was corrected to show that Huizenga will not be Gordon-Hagerty’s chief of staff.
