The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) is part of a labor union that represents nearly 160,000 actors and others in America. I don’t know how many NRC senior managers are SAG members, but with more and more individuals acting as senior managers for longer and longer periods, SAG may need to open an office in Rockville, Maryland where NRC is headquartered.
Figure 1 shows the NRC’s organization chart as of March 1, 2018. At the top are the five Commissioners, or rather the three Commissioners because two Commission positions have been vacant for over a year. Below the Commissioners are the 29 senior NRC managers. Of those 29 senior managers, the seven managers circled in red are only acting in those roles. Some have been acting at it for a long time. Fred Brown has been acting as the Director of the Office of New Reactors for over a year while Brian Holian has been acting as the Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation since July 1, 2017. And Victor McCree, the NRC’s Executive Director for Operations (EDO), announced he will be retiring on June 30, 2018. The casting calls for an EDO actor have not yet been announced.
Fig. 1 Red boxes indicate acting or missing managers. (Source: NRC annotated by UCS)
Why Does it Matter?
Who commands more respect:
- A full-time teacher or a substitute?
- A real doctor or someone who stayed at Holiday Inn Express last night?
- A parent or a babysitter?
- A sheriff or a mall cop (Paul Blart excepted)?
- A bona fide manager or an acting manager?
An acting manager can tackle the job as if it is a permanent one. But will she or he truly expend as much effort on long term tasks as someone who will be in that same job when those tasks are conducted?
Even if the acting manager performs the job as fully and capably as someone in the position for real, will her or his subordinates really raise longer term matters or will they simply wait until the real boss takes over?
A non-acting manager “owns” the job and can devote all her or his skills and attention to every aspect of that job. And staff can follow non-acting leaders without being distracted by the temptation to tolerate supervision until the real boss reports for duty.
What Does It Take to Stop the Acting?
The President nominates and the Senate confirms NRC Commissioners. So, the two empty Commissioner seats are up to the President and Senate to fill—you know, the folks unable to pass real budgets and who rely instead on serial “acting” budgetary measures. The other 29 positions on Figure 1 can be filled by the NRC itself without Presidential or Congressional involvement.
The Commission, or a majority thereof, fill the positions explicitly defined in the Atomic Energy Act. These positions include the EDO and the Directors of the Office of New Reactors and Nuclear Reactor Regulation. The EDO fills the remaining positions. For example, the NRC announced on January 2, 2018, that K. Steven West had been appointed Regional Administrator for Region III, replacing Cynthia D. Pederson who retired on December 30, 2017 (three days earlier).
Mr. West had been the Acting Director of the Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response since July 2017 when Brian Holian became the Acting Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. After Mr. West got his permanent assignment, Brian McDermott was named to become the new Acting Director of NSIR. Since Mr. McDermott filled in for Acting Director West who was filling in for real Director Holian, perhaps Mr. McDermott is Acting Acting Director of NSIR.
UCS Perspective
Despite how many NRC senior managers have been acting at their positions for so long, they should probably not become SAG members. SAG represents actors and others in the entertainment industry. The NRC’s musical chairs is neither entertaining to play nor to watch.
The NRC filled Ms. Pederson’s position as Regional Administrator within three days of her retirement with a permanent, not Acting, Regional Administrator. So, the NRC can fill senior management positions expeditiously without needing actors. Despite this proven ability, 24 percent of the NRC’s top 29 management positions are filled by actors. So, the NRC can do better but has chosen—for reasons unknown—not to do so.
The NRC needs to stop acting so much, Otherwise, will the last non-actor please turn out the lights on the way out the door.