Source: Washington Post | Steve Overly

A former Energy Department official has been named chief executive of Centrus Energy Corp. less than six months after the Bethesda-based supplier of enriched uranium to nuclear plants emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Daniel B. Poneman will start as president and chief executive Monday, serving as a successor to John K. Welch, who stepped down in October.

Poneman was appointed deputy secretary in the Energy Department in 2009, a position in which he oversaw and implemented the Obama administration’s call to harvest energy from oil, natural gas, wind, solar and other energy sources in cleaner and more secure ways.

He also coordinated the department’s emergency-response efforts in the wake of natural disasters, such as Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast and the tsunami in Fukushima, Japan, the company said. The latter disaster took out a nuclear reactor facility, raising safety and security concerns for the entire industry.

Poneman’s career has alternated between government service and the private sector.

 He has worked on defense policy and arms control at the National Security Council, dealing with issues related to weapons of mass destruction, peaceful nuclear cooperation and missile technology.

In 1975, as an intern for then-Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), Poneman wrote his first memo on uranium enrichment.

“In some form or another I have been doing this on and off for 40 years,” Poneman said in an interview.