President Obama intends to nominate a former Senate aide to lead the Energy Department's Nuclear Energy Office, the White House announced yesterday.

Peter Lyons, who is currently DOE's principal deputy assistant secretary for nuclear energy, would become the assistant secretary for nuclear energy, replacing Warren "Pete" Miller, who stepped down last month (E&ENews PM, Oct. 4).

Lyons takes over a formidable research and development program. Among the nuclear program's goals: to improve the efficiency of reactors in "burning" up fuel to lower waste, to extend reactor life beyond 60 years and to solve the nuclear-waste disposal issue.

Also in the nuclear office's portfolio is the development of advanced reactors including small modular reactors, which Energy Secretary Steven Chu and lawmakers see as important to the future of the U.S. nuclear industry. Congress has introduced several bills, some of which have passed out of committee and one that passed the House by voice vote, to expand DOE's small-reactor program and to create private-public partnership to accelerate deployment of the technology (E&E Daily, Dec. 1).

Prior to joining DOE, Lyons was a commissioner on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2005 to 2009. He also served as science adviser for former Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for two years prior to that.

Lyons worked in various positions at the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1969 to 1996.

He is a fellow of the American Nuclear Society and American Physical Society and served as the chairman of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Nuclear Effects Task Group for five years. Lyons also holds three patents related to fiber optics and plasma diagnostics, the White House said.

Lyons graduated with a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics from the University of Arizona in 1964 and received a doctorate in nuclear astrophysics from the California Institute of Technology in 1969.