Allison Macfarlane, chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), announced
she is stepping down from her post effective January 1.
Macfarlane said she is leaving the NRC to take a position at George Washington University. She
was nominated by President Obama to finish out the last year of former Chairman Gregory
Jaczko’s term. She was confirmed in July 2012. The President nominated her for a second term,
and, in June 2013, she was confirmed to a five-year term ending June 30, 2018.
Jaczko stepped down in May 2012 amid accusations of intimidating NRC workers and his
decisions to vote against new builds at Plant Vogtle in Georgia and V.C. Summer in South
Carolina were questioned.
“I came to the Commission with the mission of righting the ship after a tumultuous period for the
Commission, and ensuring that the agency implemented lessons learned from the tragic accident
at Fukushima Daiichi, so that the American people can be confident that such an accident will
never take place here,” Macfarlane said in a statement to the commission, members of Congress
and others. “With these key objectives accomplished, I am now returning to academia as
Director of the Center for International Science and Technology Policy at George Washington
University.”
