NRC nominee Nieh commits to independent safety mission

During a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing today, Ho Nieh, President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as a commissioner at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, was urged to maintain the agency's independence regardless of political pressure from the Trump administration.

Democratic members of the committee called on Nieh to commit to following the NRC's safety mission regardless of potential influence from Department of Government Efficiency staff or the Trump White House.

In recent months, the Trump administration has increased the Department of Energy's role in nuclear energy regulation-typically the purview of the NRC. Through Executive Order 14301, released in May, the administration set an aggressive and highly ambitious timeline for the DOE to approve three small modular reactors and for those reactors to reach criticality by July 4, 2026.

Concerns: Lawmakers raised concerns that the DOE's new push into regulating advanced nuclear reactors has broken the firewall between the agency and the NRC and that this action will undermine the NRC's independence.

"A firewall was the very purpose for the establishment of the NRC, so I see the DOE infiltration as very dangerous," Sen. Richard Whitehouse (D., R.I.), the committee's ranking member, said during the hearing.

In response to those concerns, Nieh said, "If confirmed, I will 100 percent stay committed to the independent safety mission of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ensure that all the decisions NRC makes are, in fact, made independently with the right technical input."

Trump nominated Nieh on July 30 to serve as NRC commissioner for the remainder of a term set to expire June 30, 2029, that was held by former NRC commissioner Chris Hanson, who was fired by the Trump administration in June.

Safety first: EPW Committee chair Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R., W.Va.) said she supported Nieh's commitment to maintaining safety, along with that of Douglas Troutman, the nominee to the Environmental Protection Agency's assistant administrator for toxic substances.

"The message I got from both of you that safety is number one, both on the chemical side and the nuclear side," she said.

Nieh's nuclear history: Nieh has been vice president of regulatory affairs at Southern Nuclear since 2021 and has been working as a loaned executive at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations since June 2024.

If confirmed, Nieh would be returning to the NRC after three previous stints totaling 23 years. During that time, he held several positions, including director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, regional office director for reactor projects, resident inspector, and in policymaking and incident response.

Nieh started his career at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, where he worked primarily as a nuclear plant engineer and contributed as a civilian instructor in the U.S. Navy's Nuclear Power Program.

Looking ahead: The committee will move to hold a vote on advancing Nieh to the Senate floor in the coming weeks, but a committee spokesperson declined to provide a date.

The NRC is currently down to just three commissioners-instead of its full slate of five-after Chris Hanson was fired in June and former commissioner Annie Caputo resigned in July.