Nuclear Weapons Job Nominee Ends Fight for Confirmation
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WASHINGTON — President Bush’s nominee to head nuclear weapons production has given up a 10-month fight to win Senate confirmation, the Energy Department said Tuesday.
The nominee, Victor Stello Jr., said in a letter of withdrawal that Bush urgently needs a politically acceptable weapons chief.
“It has become clear to me that I cannot be that person,” Stello wrote in the letter to Bush dated last Friday asking withdrawal of his nomination as assistant secretary of energy for defense programs.
Tom Olson, a department spokesman, said the White House had accepted Stello’s request.
Olson said Stello would remain at the department in a civil service job that does not require Senate confirmation. His responsibilities will include overseeing efforts to restart idled reactors at the Savannah River nuclear weapons plant.
Since Bush’s announcement of the Stello nomination last July, many environmental groups and prominent members of Congress have accused Stello of improper behavior in his previous job, chief operations officer of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
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