RELEASE: Breakthrough Institute Statement on the Termination of NRC Commissioner Christopher Hanson

WASHINGTON, DC, June 16 – On Friday, June 13th, 2025, President Donald Trump removed Christopher T. Hanson from his role as one of five Commissioners at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The removal raises serious questions about the administration’s strategy for the NRC at a critical moment for the industry.

Although the President has statutory authority to designate the Chair of the NRC, the authority to remove sitting Commissioners is being tested. A recent Supreme Court stay gives the administration more latitude to control independent agencies, but that legal landscape is increasingly in flux.

Nuclear energy has largely transcended the partisan polarization that has characterized most other areas of climate and energy policy in recent years. Today, nuclear energy enjoys rare and growing bipartisan support in Congress and among the public.

Unfortunately, that spirit of bipartisanship has yet to be fully realized among the Commissioners themselves. For major issues, Commissioners often vote along party lines. And the nomination and confirmation of Commissioners have remained partisan. Over the past 15 years and across multiple administrations, two major shifts have taken place at the NRC. First, Presidents now routinely replace the NRC Chair with someone from their own party, rather than allowing the sitting Chair to serve out their term. Second, Commissioners—often former Chairs—are increasingly resigning before their terms end, enabling the President to appoint a majority aligned with their party. These practices were rare before 2009. The Democratic Senate majority confirmed Commissioner Matthew Marzano on a narrow party-line vote in the lame duck session of Congress in December 2024, in order to deny President Trump a majority on the commission as he began his second term. Now, Trump has taken the unprecedented step to remove Commissioner Hanson. The President can remove a Commissioner for cause, but no cause was given.

Hanson’s removal comes just two weeks before Chairman David Wright’s term ends, putting the NRC on track for a three-member Commission starting July 1st. While this satisfies the quorum requirement, past experience has shown that a full five-member Commission is essential for effective and timely decision making, especially as the agency navigates the implementation of the nuclear executive orders. Our analysis of the vote records shows that a full five-member Commission is statistically almost twice as efficient as a three-member Commission. Completing a “review and wholesale revision of its regulations and guidance documents” in a timely manner, as ordered by the Trump administration, will necessitate a significant effort by the Commission.

With Commission Hanson removed, Chairman Wright just renominated today, the agency working to comply with the ADVANCE Act, and the administration's ambitious directions, the future of the Commission’s leadership and agenda is now even more uncertain.

The NRC remains critically in need of reform and modernization. But those efforts will almost certainly fail if the result is to return to the partisan polarization around nuclear energy that crippled the industry over the last generation.

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Media Contact:

Adam Stein

Director, Nuclear Energy Innovation

adam@thebreakthrough.org