Christopher Hanson, a Democrat commissioner on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, was fired by President Donald Trump on Friday.
Hanson claimed in a statement he was removed "without cause" and "contrary to existing law and long-standing precedent regarding removal of independent agency appointees."
Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, told Politico that "all organizations are more effective when leaders are rowing in the same direction," noting Trump has the right remove employees "within his own executive branch."
Hanson had been nominated to the commission by Trump in 2020 and was named chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by Biden in 2021. When Trump began his second administration, he tapped David Wright to replace Hanson as chairman of the commission.
Hanson had criticized Trump after the president signed an executive order seeking to bring independent agencies under control of the White House.
"As a five-member bipartisan commission, the agency was deliberately structured by Congress to promote independence from outside influences that might turn the focus away from safety," Hanson said at the agency's annual regulatory conference in March, Politico reported. "This was a purposeful lesson learned from the days of the Atomic Energy Commission and implemented through the creation of the NRC."
Hanson said in a statement that it was an "honor to serve" at the commission.
"My focus over the last five years has been to prepare the agency for anticipated change in the energy sector while preserving the independence, integrity and bipartisan nature of the world's gold-standard nuclear safety institution."
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