David Huizenga, the Department of Energy’s defense-nuclear do-it-all, is stepping aside as the National Nuclear Security Administration’s top career civil servant to become a senior advisor to the nuclear-weapons sub-agency’s administrator, initially focusing on negotiations to return the U.S. to the Iran Nuclear Deal, according to an internal email.
Huizenga will assume his new role starting in December. Aside from Iran negotiations, he will also assist with “removal of key partners from Afghanistan, partnering with the Office of Nuclear Energy on the continued development of a domestic uranium strategy, and coordinating with Environmental Management on key areas of common interest,” Jill Hruby, the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration wrote in an email.
Huizenga, who has more than 30 years of federal service under his belt at this point, also will continue as NNSA’s associate principal deputy administrator until the NNSA finds a replacement. The agency plans to post the job “in the near future,” Hruby wrote.
After decades on the job, Huizenga last year got a sort of lifetime achievement award when he was elevated, temporarily, to acting secretary of energy and held down the fort until the Senate confirmed President Joe Biden’s nominee for the job, Jennifer Granholm.
At DOE, Huizenga has bounced from the NNSA to the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, which he led on an acting basis for about four years during the Barack Obama administration.
