Tom Sowinski serves as 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). In this role, Mr. Sowinski leads teams of dedicated senior nuclear safety professionals responsible for executing the Department’s independent oversight program that assesses the safety of high-hazard nuclear facilities and operations across the entire DOE complex. These assessments provide critical, objective feedback on strengths and improvement opportunities for complex nuclear safety programs and performance areas designed to protect workers, the public, and environment from the radiological hazards associated with DOE nuclear facility operations.
Mr. Sowinski brings to the role over 15 years of nuclear engineering, operations, oversight, and federal program management experience. Mr. Sowinski joined EA in 2021, serving as a Site Lead conducting high-impact nuclear safety and environmental assessments of complex nuclear facilities at the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management sites. Prior to joining EA, Mr. Sowinski served in DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) as the Director for the Office of Nuclear Reactor Deployment. In this role, Mr. Sowinski led federal and national laboratory subject matter experts committed to executing high profile programs for sustaining the current U.S. nuclear reactor fleet and commercializing innovative next-generation reactor technologies. Mr. Sowinski also served several years as a federal program manager in NE, leading major DOE-sponsored research and development and cost-shared activities in advanced reactor licensing, liquid metal-cooled fast reactors, and microreactors. Prior to his DOE career, Mr. Sowinski worked in the commercial nuclear power industry as a reactor engineer at the Dresden Generating Station and in corporate nuclear oversight.
Mr. Sowinski holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and master’s degree from North Carolina State University, both in nuclear engineering. He is also a graduate of DOE’s Leadership Development Program and has completed multiple leadership and managerial courses throughout his career.