NRC Chairman Meserve (Photo courtesy Nuclear Regulatory Commission)

Richard A. Meserve, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the past three years, has said he will leave his post at the end of March to become president of the Washington-based Carnegie Institution.

Meserve, named to the top NRC position by President Clinton in 1999, will be stepping down 15 months before his term was to expire. In announcing his decision on Dec. 12, Meserve, 58, noted that he had been on the Carnegie Institution board for 10 years. He said that the Carnegie organization had wanted him to start there in January, but he is putting off his departure from the NRC until March "to allow an orderly transition in the NRC's management."

In a message to the NRC staff, Meserve said that among the agency's recent accomplishments were an effective response to security issues in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, "reinvigorated research" that could lead to "the next generation of nuclear reactors," and a "framework" for dealing with the federal government's license application to open a nuclear waste disposal site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

Evaluating the Yucca Mountain application will be among the biggest challenges facing Meserve's successor.

Before becoming NRC Chairman in October 1999, Meserve was a partner with the Washington law firm Covington & Burling. He has a law degree and a Ph.D. in applied physics.

The term of another Democratic appointee to the five-member commission, Greta Joy Dicus, expires June 30.