Hanson appointed to Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Christopher Hanson has been tapped to serve as a commissioner on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

Hanson was sworn in by NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki after being nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. He will begin his term immediately and serve the remainder of a five-year term that ends June 30, 2024.

Before joining the NRC, he served as a staff member on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Hanson also served as a senior advisor in the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy, and as a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. Overall, Hanson has more than two decades of government and private-sector experience in the fields of nuclear energy.

Hanson has a master’s degree from Yale Divinity School and Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where he focused on ethics and natural resource economics. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religious Studies from Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Ind.

The NRC was established to be a collegial body that formulates policies, develops regulations, issues orders to licensees, and adjudicates legal matters. The commissioners serve five-year terms, with one term expiring every year on June 30. No more than three commissioners may be of the same political party.