Office of Nuclear Energy

The Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) is an agency of the United States Department of Energy which promotes nuclear power as a resource capable of meeting the energy, environmental, and national security needs of the United States by resolving technical and regulatory barriers through research, development, and demonstration.

Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy of Office of Nuclear Energy
Incumbent
Kathryn Huff
since May 11, 2022
United States Department of Energy
Reports toUnder Secretary of Energy for Infrastructure
AppointerPresident of the United States
FormationApril 3, 2006
First holderDennis Spurgeon

The Office is led by the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy, who is appointed by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the United States Senate. The current Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy is Kathryn Huff.[1][2]

Overview

The Office of Nuclear Energy is guided by the following four research objectives detailed in its Nuclear Energy Research and Development Roadmap:[3][4]

  • Develop technologies and other solutions that can improve the reliability, sustain the safety and extend the life of current reactors.
  • Develop improvements in the affordability of new reactors to enable nuclear energy to help meet the Administration's energy security and climate change goals.
  • Develop sustainable fuel cycles.
  • Understand and minimize the risks of nuclear proliferation and terrorism.

Organization

The Office is under the general supervision of the Under Secretary of Energy for Infrastructure. It is administered by the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy (NE-1), who is appointed by the President of the United States. The Assistant Secretary is supported in running the Office by a politically appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and five career Deputy Assistant Secretaries. Each of the five Deputy Assistant Secretaries oversee a different branch of the Office's work. As of 2022, staffing and organization was as follows:[2]

  • Assistant Secretary
    • Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary
      • Deputy Assistant Secretary – Nuclear Infrastructure Programs - Tracey Bishop
      • Deputy Assistant Secretary – Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition - Kim Petry (Acting)
      • Deputy Assistant Secretary – Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Supply Chain - Andrew Griffith
      • Deputy Assistant Secretary – International Nuclear Energy Policy and Cooperation - Aleshia Duncan
      • Deputy Assistant Secretary – Reactor Fleet and Advanced Reactor Deployment - Alice Caponiti

Laboratory

The Office of Nuclear Energy is the landlord of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). INL is in southern Idaho, just west of the Eastern Snake River Plain. It occupies 890 square miles (2,300 km2) of desert and is about 42 miles (68 km) from Idaho Falls.

INL is an applied engineering laboratory dedicated to supporting the U.S. Department of Energy's research of nuclear energy, national and homeland security, and clean energy. Past and current work includes initial development of: nuclear reactor designs, prototype reactors for the U.S. Navy, and technologies to manage nuclear waste. INL also conducts research supporting fuel cycle development, as well nuclear energy demos and deployments.

Lab history

INL was established in 1949 as the "National Reactor Testing Station" by the Atomic Energy Commission. It is the location of historic Experimental Breeder Reactor Number I (EBR-I), which was the first nuclear reactor to generate usable electrical power.

CASL Hub

The Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL) was established in July 2010 as the first of five Department of Energy Innovation Hubs.[5][6] It was administered by the Office of Nuclear Energy, and coordinated by Oak Ridge National Lab and INL.[7] CASL had one goal: To develop a simulation environment that modeled the operation of an entire reactor down to the characteristics of a single fuel rod (which significantly exceeded the resolution available with existing industry tools). This simulation environment was named the Virtual Reactor. The Virtual Reactor was designed and built to provide solutions to a wide variety of reactor performance challenges.[8]

In order to develop what was eventually called the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA), it was necessary for CASL to conduct both basic research and technology development.[9] Work of such scope and complexity was accomplished through a partnership of U.S. government, academia, and industry.[5] In 2020, the CASL project concluded, making VERA available for licensing and deployment by the nuclear industry.[10][11]

List of assistant secretaries

The Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy is the head of the Office of Nuclear Energy. The assistant secretary is responsible for a budget of $1.626 billion as of fiscal year 2021.

Parties

  Democratic   Republican

Status

  Acting Assistant Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Energy

Portrait Name Took office Left office President(s)
George W. Cunningham[12] 1979 1981 Jimmy Carter
Shelby Brewer[13] 1981 1984 Ronald Reagan
A. David Rossin[14] 1986 1987
William H. Young[15] 1989 1993 George H. W. Bush
Dennis Spurgeon April 3, 2006 2009 George Bush
Pete Miller 2009 November 2010[16] Barack Obama
Peter Lyons[17][18] April 14, 2011 June 30, 2015[19]
John Kotek John Kotek 2015 January 2017[20]
Edward McGinnis Edward McGinnis May 2017 November 2017 Donald Trump
Rita Baranwal July 11, 2019[21] January 8, 2021[22]
Dennis Michael Miotla Dennis Michael Miotla January 8, 2021 May 10, 2021 Joseph Biden
Kathryn Huff Kathryn Huff May 10, 2021 January 19, 2022 Joseph Biden
Andrew Griffith Andrew Griffith January 19, 2022[23] May 11, 2022 Joseph Biden
Kathryn Huff Kathryn Huff May 11, 2022[1] Incumbent Joseph Biden

See also

References
  1. "DOE Welcomes New Biden-Harris Appointees" DOE. May 10, 2021. https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-welcomes-new-biden-harris-appointees
  2. "Leadership". Energy.gov. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  3. "Nuclear Energy Roadmap" (PDF). www.ne.doe.gov. Archived from the original (pdf) on April 22, 2010.
  4. "About Us|Department of Energy". Energy.gov. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
  5. Bumpus, Kristi (August 13, 2020). "CASL wraps up 10 years of solving nuclear problems — and hands toolbox to industry | ORNL". www.ornl.gov. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  6. "U.S. Department of Energy Innovation Hubs". Energy.gov. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  7. "The Consortium For Advance Simulation Of Light Water Reactors". casl.gov. Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  8. "VERA | The Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications". Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  9. "Impact – CASL". Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  10. "VERA nuclear reactor simulation software licensed commercially for first time | ORNL". www.ornl.gov. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  11. "The Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors Virtual Meeting". American Nuclear Society. Proceedings. virtual: www.ans.org (3090). November 2020. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  12. "NOMINATIONS SUBMITTED TO THE SENATE Week Ending Friday, | The American Presidency Project". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  13. "Brewer, Shelby T." The Wall Street Transcript. September 10, 2015. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  14. "A. David Rossin -- ANS / About / Presidents". www.ans.org. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  15. "William H. Young - Bio | NAS". www.nas.org. Retrieved August 8, 2020.
  16. "Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy: Who is Peter Lyons?". Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  17. "Official Biography". Archived from the original on September 15, 2018. Retrieved August 30, 2011.
  18. "Obituary: The nuclear community remembers Pete Lyons". www.ans.org. American Nuclear Society. May 3, 2021. Retrieved December 10, 2022.
  19. "Peter Lyons". Archived from the original on August 7, 2019. Retrieved August 7, 2019.
  20. "InTheNews - Kotek joins NEI as VP for policy development..." nuc1.inl.gov. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  21. "Rita Baranwal Sworn in as U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy". Retrieved August 7, 2019.
  22. "Baranwal departs Office of Nuclear Energy -- ANS / Newswire". www.ans.org. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  23. "Leadership | Department of Energy". January 20, 2022. Archived from the original on January 20, 2022. Retrieved January 20, 2022.
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