White House to nominate nuclear expert to deputy energy secretary

[bananas]

http://www.platts.com/Nuclear/News/6262328.xml

White House to nominate nuclear expert to deputy energy secretary

Washington (Platts)--15Apr2009

The White House said Tuesday it intends to nominate Daniel Poneman, a
long-time nuclear weapons and non-proliferation expert, as deputy secretary at
the US Department of Energy.

Poneman comes from The Scowcroft Group, an international business
advisory firm. He was the National Security Council's senior director for
nonproliferation and export controls from 1993 to 1996, during the Clinton
administration. Prior to that, Poneman was NSC's director of defense policy
and arms control. He also has written extensively about nuclear energy and
nuclear weapons policy.

Poneman's experience could complement Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a
Nobel Prize-winning physicist and former director of Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory. After Chu was named energy secretary, some voiced concern
about his lack of experience with nuclear weapons, as a large portion of DOE's
annual budget goes toward the National Nuclear Security Administration, which
oversees the US nuclear weapons complex.

The White House's decision to name Poneman also comes after it ordered
DOE and the Department of Defense to review the benefits and hazards of moving
NNSA from DOE to DOD jurisdiction.