U.S. NRC Commissioner Magwood to head OECD nuclear agency

(Reuters) - U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner William Magwood is leaving the NRC to become Director General of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's Nuclear Energy Agency, the NRC said in an email Wednesday. "It is a tremendous honor to have been the U.S. government's candidate for this position and to have been selected as the seventh Director General to lead the NEA since it was formed in 1958," Magwood said in a statement. Magwood said he will join the NEA in September. The NEA, which was established in 1958, has 31 member countries in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region and provides a forum for international discussion, cooperation and coordination in areas such as nuclear safety, radioactive waste management, law and technology, the NRC said. Magwood was sworn in as a commissioner in April 2010 for a term ending in June 2010, and was reappointed to a term ending in June 2015. Before the NRC, Magwood served seven years as the Director of Nuclear Energy with the U.S. Department of Energy, where he was the senior nuclear technology official in the United States Government. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino)