Trump Cans Biden’s Nuclear Regulator As Agency Faces Pro-Nuke Overhaul

President Donald Trump fired Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Christopher Hanson on Friday, abruptly ousting the Biden appointee as part of an escalating White House effort to bend ⚡Energy watchdogs to his pro-nuclear agenda.

The dismissal leaves the five-member Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) evenly split along party lines, coming three weeks after Trump signed an executive order directing a wholesale overhaul of the agency’s licensing rules to accelerate reactor construction.

“Late on Friday, President Trump terminated my position with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission without cause, contrary to existing law and longstanding precedent regarding the removal of independent agency appointees,” Hanson wrote in a LinkedIn statement.

Hanson had led the NRC for the first two years of the Biden administration and remained a commissioner after Trump elevated Republican David Wright to the chairmanship in January. His removal trims the commission to two Republicans and two Democrats, a balance that could stall major decisions as the administration presses for a quadrupling of U.S. nuclear capacity by 2050.

A White House spokesperson confirmed that “Chris Hanson is no longer at the NRC” in a statement to the