Job cuts at both the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Department of Energy (DOE) could risk hurting the country’s goal of accelerating energy leadership, according to thinktank the Nuclear Innovation Alliance (NIA).

In testimony to the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Energy in January, NIA president Judi Greenwald, said that many offices in the DOE were short of staff and may face further cuts to their budgets and staffing.

She said that while the DOE had taken on a rapidly expanding portfolio of nuclear energy programmes and public-private partnerships, that the number of staff had dramatically declined. Citing reports, she said that close to 3,500 DOE staff had left the agency.

“These reductions in staff run counter to the vision of US energy leadership laid out by the Trump administration and supported by Congress,” she said in the written testimony.