Dive Brief:

• A member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will step down when his five-year term expires in June, potentially leaving the NRC with just three of five seats filled.
• Platts reports William Ostendorff, who was sworn in April 2010, will leave the commission later this year. "I will not seek renomination," he said at a conference this week.
• Currently the NRC has four members, and Ostendorff's departure would leave just three. While the commission can operate with just three, last summer President Barack Obama nominated Jessie Roberson to fill an open seat.

Dive Insight:

Ostendorff made his announcement at the Platts Nuclear Energy conference in Washington this week, saying he feels comfortable with the state of the commission and industry. In the wake of the Fukushima accident in Japan in 2011, regulators have worked to bolster plant safety here in the United States.

"I feel very comfortable leaving the commission at the end of June with where we are on Fukushima," Platts quoted Ostendorff saying.

Before joining the NRC, Ostendorff served as the director of the Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy and as director of the Board on Global Science and Technology at the National Academies.

Obama's nominee Roberson is an ex-Bush official at the Department of Energy, serving now as vice chairman of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. She was appointed by Obama to that position in 2014, following years of service after being initially nominated by President Bill Clinton.

In terms of the power sector, Ostendorff's replacement will likely need to evaluate requests for license extensions from multiple nuclear plants around the nation. A number of utilities are pushing for extensions to operate their plants up to 80 years — double their initial expected life term — arguing that the zero-carbon power the plants provide is essential in meeting emissions goals under the Clean Power Plan and the Paris climate accord singed last year. 

The U.S. Senate must confirm the nominations of both Roberson's and Ostendorff's eventual replacement, an uncertain prospect in the contentious political climate of an election year.