nuclear-news

Nuclear physicist Moniz next USA Energy Secretary?

Obama considers MIT nuclear physicist as next energy secretary. The Age, 7 Feb 13, President Barack Obama is considering naming nuclear physicist Ernest Moniz, one of his science and energy advisers, as the next energy secretary, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. Moniz, who was undersecretary at the Energy Department during the Clinton administration, is a familiar figure on Capitol Hill, where he has often talked to lawmakers about how abundant supplies of US natural gas will gradually replace coal as a source of electricity.

Moniz is director of MIT’s Energy Initiative, a research group that gets funding from industry heavyweights including BP , Chevron, and Saudi Aramco for academic work on projects aimed at reducing climate-changing greenhouse gases.

He did not respond to an e-mail request for comment on Wednesday evening…… From his time in the Clinton administration, he has experience managing the department’s oversight of a chain of national laboratories and the US stockpile of nuclear weapons.

After Obama made good on a first-term campaign promise to shut down the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site in Nevada, he named Moniz to a “Blue Ribbon” panel that looked for a new approach for storing toxic nuclear waste.
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/obama-considers-mit-nuclear-physicist-as-next-energy-secretary-20130207-2e1lq.html#ixzz2KKsxrFxw

February 8, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA