Rian Bahran

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT RIAN BAHRAN

Dr. Rian Bahran is an American nuclear engineer and senior government official serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Reactors in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy. A career member of the Senior Executive Service, he oversees the Department’s portfolio for nuclear reactor R&D, demonstration, and deployment, including advanced reactors such as small modular reactors (ARDP and Gen awards) and microreactors. He leads initiatives across nuclear regulation, artificial intelligence applications, space fission systems, and reactor deployment for defense installations, maritime applications, homeland security, and industrial users. He also supports programs focused on deployment of reactors on federal lands and manages DOE’s Reactor and Fuel Line Pilot Launchpad programs. He also manages programs supporting the current gigawatt-scale commercial nuclear fleet, including the Civil Nuclear Credit Program, reactor uprates and restarts, and the development of technologies to enhance the capacity of existing reactors.Prior to joining the Department of Energy, Dr. Bahran worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he spent more than a decade as an experimentalist and program manager. He later served across multiple administrations as a senior advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, providing strategic guidance on nuclear issues, energy, space, homeland defense, resilience, and other critical national security matters. For his service at the Pentagon, he received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service. He also served as Assistant Director for Nuclear Technology and Strategy in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he led policy development on nuclear fission and fusion energy, national security applications of nuclear technology, and emerging technologies including artificial intelligence to enhance resilience and strengthen global competitiveness.Dr. Bahran holds a Ph.D. in Nuclear Science and Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York. His doctoral research was funded by the U.S. Naval Reactors Program in support of the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory Advanced Reactor Program. He also earned a dual Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics from RPI. He has also served as an adjunct professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University of New Mexico, and the University of Michigan, teaching and mentoring students on both technical and policy dimensions of nuclear science and engineering.