Tamara D. Powell is the Director of the Office of Nuclear Safety and Environmental Assessments within the Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA) at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Ms. Powell is responsible for managing the day-to-day implementation of an independent oversight program that assesses the safety of high-hazard nuclear operations across the entire DOE complex. These assessments provide critical feedback and objective information on complex programs and performance designed to protect workers, the public and environment from the radiological hazards associated with Departmental operations.
A nuclear engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in nuclear safety, Ms. Powell joined EA’s Office of Nuclear Safety and Environmental Assessments in November 2020 as a Site Lead. She conducted high-impact, mission enabling nuclear safety and environmental assessments of nuclear facilities at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Portsmouth and Paducah sites, before being selected as Director of the office in March 2026. Prior to DOE, she spent 20 years at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), where she served in various organizations including the Division of Fuel Cycle Safety and Safeguards, where she provided oversight of nuclear criticality safety programs at NRC-licensed fuel cycle facilities and the Office of Enforcement, where she served as a program manager addressing policy matters for the NRC allegation program.
Ms. Powell holds a Bachelor of Science degree in nuclear engineering from the University of Maryland and a Master of Business Administration from Western Governors University. She is also a graduate of the 2024 DOE Leadership Development Program and earned a Graduate Certificate in Nuclear Criticality Safety from the University of Tennessee.