Tennessee can lead the nation in nuclear energy production
WASHINGTON—Yesterday, United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, at a hearing received confirmation from Energy Secretary Chris Wright that nuclear energy is the most critical component to bring about the American Energy Golden Age. He also agreed that Tennessee has the potential to be the nation’s leader in nuclear energy production.
“The United States is at a pivotal moment in energy production,” Hagerty said. “It’s not just for our nation; it’s for the entire world…Tennessee has been at the forefront of what you’ve called yourself as the ‘Manhattan Project 2.0’, and I was very pleased to introduce you there and to talk about how we can leverage the deep technological expertise that we have there in our home state as you take this department and lead our nation toward a new energy future.”
“I am very hopeful that Tennessee can become the catalyst for the United States as nuclear energy resurgence… But if we could zoom out a bit, Secretary Wright, I’d like to ask you how you see nuclear energy, particularly [Small Modular Reactors], playing a central role in advancing and achieving American energy dominance and grid liability over the next decade,” Hagerty asked.
“It is the critical technology that could scale wildly beyond where it is today, which is just electricity production into huge-scale electricity production and process heat, an even larger, more critical source of energy to make everything in the globe possible,” said Secretary Wright. “I am all in with you on advancing nuclear…Nuclear is the [energy source] that could burst through.”
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