Rita Baranwal is scheduled to be sworn in Thursday as assistant secretary for nuclear energy at the Department of Energy.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry will handle the swearing-in ceremony, a DOE official said. An industry source said Baranwal has already started work, including receiving internal briefings.
The Senate confirmed Baranwal on June 20, just over five months after she was nominated for a second time to lead the department’s Office of Nuclear Energy. A previously scheduled vacation delayed her swearing-in, according to the source.
Baranwal will now head the office, with a roughly $1.3 billion budget, that manages DOE’s efforts to promote the use of nuclear energy. It is also charged with managing its nuclear waste program, including potential resumption of the DOE license application for a nuclear waste repository below Yucca Mountain, Nev.
Baranwal spent more than a decade working in the nuclear industry, then in August 2016 joined the Energy Department as director of the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) program.
The White House first nominated Baranwal last October. Her nomination was passed out of committee, but the 115th Congress ended on Jan. 3 before she could get a vote by the full Senate. All pending nominations were sent back to the White House, which reupped Baranwal on Jan. 16.
For the upcoming fiscal 2020, the Energy Department has requested $116 million for its Yucca Mountain and interim waste storage line item, most of that for resuming licensing of the Nevada repository. The Trump administration has already twice unsuccessfully requested congressional appropriations for the licensing proceeding defunded nearly a decade ago by the Obama administration.
During her November 2018 confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Baranwal committed to following the law on nuclear waste disposal. The 1987 amendment to the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act leaves Yucca Mountain as the only legal location for the waste repository.
