Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
4/11/2014
Several potential candidates have begun to emerge for a spot set to open on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission later this year. Current Commissioner William Magwood has been named to take over as Director General of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Nuclear Energy Agency in September. Among those seen as potential replacement candidates, RW Monitor has learned, are Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner, the current chief of staff for NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane; Sam Fowler, a long-time Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee aide; and Mary Louise Wagner, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz’s Senior Nuclear Policy Advisor.
It remains to be seen what role, if any, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), a staunch opponent of efforts to locate a nuclear waste repository in his home state, will place in the Administration’s choice of a new NRC commissioner. Previous NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko had been a Reid staffer before being named to the Commission. The NRC declined to comment on the issue of Magwood’s possible replacement this week. DOE and Reid’s office did not respond to calls for comment.
