President Donald Trump’s pick to lead nuclear energy initiatives spoke to senators Wednesday about the need to scale up reactor capacity.
Theodore Garrish, who is nominated to be the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy, told the Energy and Natural Resources Committee that he hopes to oversee reactor modernization and new reactor construction in order to meet rising energy demands associated with artificial intelligence.
“Today we are on the threshold of making nuclear a significant contributor to our nation’s energy future and making a true comeback for this important source of affordable, reliable and safe energy,” Garrish said. “Nuclear offers an extraordinary capacity to meet the coming increased electrical demand in a reliable and safe way.”
Garrish was one of a number of DOE and Interior Department nominees up before the Senate committee Wednesday. Before hearing from the nominees, the committee voted to advance two other DOE picks to a floor vote: Preston “Wells” Griffith to be undersecretary of energy and Dario Gil to be undersecretary for science.
