Do we like Christopher T. Hanson?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Clean on harm and well regarded by safety watchdogs and industry alike, but it's a quiet public record, so there's not much personal colour to score.
Hanson isn't a celebrity, he's a nuclear safety regulator, so this is a different kind of check. He joined the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2020 on Donald Trump's first-term appointment, and Joe Biden made him chair in 2021. The Senate reconfirmed him in 2024 with a big bipartisan majority.
The big story is how it ended. On a Friday in June 2025 he got a short White House email saying he was out, with no reason given. Hanson said the removal was “without cause”, and Democrats noted the Atomic Energy Act only allows removal for neglect of duty, inefficiency or malfeasance. He was reported as the first commissioner fired since the agency began in 1975.
On the harm check, nothing nasty came up. The reporting I read shows no slide into grievance or conspiracy theories, nothing against LGBTQ+ people, women or migrants, and no dodgy company. The Union of Concerned Scientists, a safety watchdog not known for going easy on the nuclear industry, called him a dedicated public servant and a strong supporter of the NRC's safety mission.
As chair he pushed staff to speed up licensing decisions, which fits with Congress's 2024 push to streamline reviews. The pro-nuclear Breakthrough Institute credited him with getting the commission to revise the staff's draft framework for licensing advanced reactors. Where you land on faster nuclear depends on how you weigh climate benefits against safety, but he was widely seen as keeping safety front and centre.
The reaction to his sacking crossed the usual lines. The American Nuclear Society said he served honorably as both commissioner and chair. A former chair, Richard Meserve, said it reflected an intent to abolish the NRC as an independent agency, and the White House said it wanted leaders rowing in the same direction.
The good stuff is mostly the job done well and defended at a cost. He said he spent his term preserving the agency's independence, integrity and bipartisan nature, then lost the job over it. I found no lawsuit by him and no news from 2026, so that's honestly the whole list.