The U.S. Senate on Thursday unanimously confirmed Lisa Gordon-Hagerty to be administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), making her the first woman to lead the semiautonomous Department of Energy branch in its nearly 20-year history.
A former staffer at the Department of Energy and National Security Council, Gordon-Hagerty was nominated by President Donald Trump on Dec. 19. It took the Senate one month and 28 days to confirm her, making hers the second-quickest trip through Congress in the history of the NNSA. John Gordon, the first NNSA administrator, was the fastest confirmation.
Gordon-Hagerty had not been sworn in at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. The agency did not reply to multiple requests for comment regarding the scheduling of the swearing-in ceremony.
In her Feb. 8 confirmation hearing, Gordon-Hagerty said she would make plutonium pit production her top priority, if she was confirmed. Pits are the fissile cores of nuclear weapons. The Pentagon wants the NNSA to produce 80 a year by 2030. This week, acting NNSA Administrator Steven Erhart said pit production would begin at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where the agency would make 30 pits a year.
The NNSA has considered moving pit production to the Savannah River Site in Aiken, S.C., and Erhart kept that possibility open this week in a budget briefing with reporters.
