Scott Morris

Mr. Scott Morris has been assigned as the Regional Administrator for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Region IV office, located in Arlington, TX, since December 2018. Prior to his current appointment, Mr. Morris served as the Deputy Regional Administrator for Region IV. He has also completed several executive assignments at NRC Headquarters in Rockville, MD, including Director of the Division of Inspection and Regional Support in the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. In this capacity he was responsible for development and implementation of the nation’s domestic power reactor oversight process (ROP), the reactor operator licensing and training program, the operating experience program, and financial qualification and assurance licensing and rulemaking activities.

From 2010-2014, Mr. Morris served as the Deputy Director of the NRC’s emergency preparedness and incident response program, including the maintenance and staffing of the agency’s 24/7 operations center and the agency’s Continuity of Operations Program. He was one of the Executive Team Response Advisors during the NRC’s 9-week around-the-clock response to the March 2011 Fukushima events, and later led the efforts to design, construct, test and deploy the agency’s new state-of-the-art emergency operations center. From 2007-2010 Mr. Morris served as the Deputy Director for Reactor Security in the Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response (NSIR), where he led power reactor security-related policy and guidance development, rulemaking, and licensing activities in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. During this time the “design basis threat” and power reactor security rulemaking activities were completed, as well as NRC’s comprehensive cyber security rulemaking. Mr. Morris also served as Chief of the Reactor Security Branch in from 2003-2007, during which time he led the NRC’s activities to re-license all operating power reactor site-specific security plans in response to the NRC’s post-9/11 security orders.

From 2000-2003 Mr. Morris served as an Executive Technical Assistant in the Office of the Executive Director for Operations, where he provided agency-level coordination and liaison for multiple NRC program offices.

From 1994-2000, Mr. Morris served as the Resident Inspector at Hope Creek (boiling water reactor) and later the Senior Resident Inspector at both the Hope Creek and the Salem reactor facilities (pressurized water reactors) in NRC Region 1. Salem was a “watch list” plant at the time during which the NRC provided heightened oversight in accordance with Inspection Manual Chapter 0350. Mr. Morris was also a member of the NRC team formed to develop the new Reactor Oversight Process and led all site inspection activities at Salem during the initial pilot implementation of the program.

Mr. Morris joined the NRC in 1993 after serving seven years of active duty as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy, where he was an initial crew member on the USS Tennessee (SSBN-734). He retired from the U.S. Navy Reserve in 2006 at the rank of Commander. Mr. Morris earned a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University in 1986 and is a 2007 graduate of the NRC’s Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program.