People

. . . and today.

Steve Rae in 1980 . . .

There I was at the promising age of 16 years old in 1973, standing before an audience of about 100 adults in Goldsboro, N.C., explaining what BWRs, breeder reactors, and PWRs were. The Goldsboro High Advanced Chemistry class teacher, Dr. Joseph Mitchener, had introduced his class of eight students to the topic of nuclear energy. I found the topic fascinating. So, when Dr. Mitchener looked for class volunteers to make public presentations like to the Goldsboro audience, I grabbed the topic of nuclear energy and ran with it. Little did I know that one action would lead to my future career.

Next up was North Carolina State University, starting in 1975, where seven out of the eight students from Dr. Mitchener’s class matriculated to the Wolfpack College of Engineering. There, I focused my interest on utility energy systems including nuclear energy.

Ahead of this year’s Annual Conference, which is taking place June 15–18 in Chicago, the American Nuclear Society is excited to recognize exceptional individuals in the nuclear community. This season’s national award recipients and new Fellows of ANS will receive official recognition during the opening plenary session on Monday, June 16.

Announcements for presidential citations from ANS President Lisa Marshall and the awards presented by the Society’s 19 professional divisions are on the horizon and will also be celebrated at the Annual Conference.

Garrish

A veteran nuclear leader with more than four decades of experience testified before a U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday as part of the nomination process to become the next NE-1, the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy.

Theodore “Ted” Garrish appeared before the Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources to answer questions about how he would approach the position—which he last held from 1987 to 1989, during the Ronald Reagan administration.

Garrish told the committee he has dedicated his career to energy—especially nuclear energy—and has worked mostly in public service positions, including posts in the DOE and Office of International Affairs.

The committee will advance Garrish’s nomination to the full U.S. Senate for a final vote, but no timeline was laid out.

International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Mariano Grossi recently traveled to Washington, D.C., for the first time since Trump took office in January. In his three-day visit to the capital, Grossi spoke with key nuclear leaders from around the world and in the federal government, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair David Wright, on topics including nuclear power, safety, security, funding, and nonproliferation.

Advanced nuclear company Oklo Inc. has new leadership for its board of directors as billionaire Sam Altman is stepping down from the position he has held since 2015. The move is meant to open new partnership opportunities with OpenAI, where Altman is CEO, and other artificial intelligence companies.

Jarrell

Roger Jarrell will lead the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management as the new principal deputy assistant secretary. Jarrell, who served in the office during the first Trump administration, was named DOE-EM senior advisor in January. Prior to that, he served as the general counsel and previously was the government and stakeholder interface at DOE cleanup contractor UCOR, of Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Jarrell takes over the assistant secretary position, listed on DOE-EM’s organizational chart as EM-2, from Dae Chung, a long-serving DOE-EM executive who was tapped by the Trump administration in March to lead the office as acting principal deputy assistant secretary following the departure of Candice Robertson, who had led the office since June 2024.

Jong Kim in 1994 . . .

How did I get interested in nuclear energy? I am a mechanical engineer by education, with a B.S. (Seoul National University), M.S. (University of Missouri), and Ph.D. (Caltech), and I am a nuclear engineer by profession.

After receiving my degree in 1971, I stayed on as a research fellow for two years and then moved to Penn State’s Garfield Thomas Water Tunnel, which at the time was the largest closed-loop tunnel in the world, as a research associate doing naval hydrodynamics research.

That was the year the infamous energy (oil) crisis hit. I thought that nuclear energy would become a critical pillar in energy security and independence. The nuclear profession looked promising. Brookhaven National Laboratory was hiring engineers to develop computer codes, so I decided to join the team and in 1975 became an associate engineer at BNL. This is how my long nuclear journey began.

Johnston

John Bennett Johnston Jr., a moderate-to-conservative Democrat who served four terms in the U.S. Senate (1972–1997) and often advocated for the energy and infrastructure interests of his home state of Louisiana, passed away on March 25 at the age of 92. Johnston was a strong supporter of Louisiana’s oil and natural gas sectors and nuclear energy expansion.

Johnston was born on June 10, 1932, in Shreveport, La. He left Shreveport to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and then Washington and Lee University in Virginia. He earned his juris doctorate in 1956 from Louisiana State University. From 1956 to 1959, he served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps.

The nomination period for the 2025 Nuclear News 40 Under 40 list is now open. The list aims to highlight those who are putting in the work to become leaders in the nuclear community. All nominations must be submitted online by 11:59 p.m. (CST) on April 30, 2025.

We welcome ANS members with long careers in the community to submit their own stories so that the personal history of nuclear power can be capured. For information on submitting your stories, contact nucnews@ans.org.

When I graduated from Scranton University in 1956 with a B.S. in physics, I was in awe of the nuclear era and determined to be part of a nuclear future. Fortunately, I landed a position with Pratt & Whitney Aircraft as part of the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion program. The position included a one-year assignment as a visiting staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

With the annual ANS election right around the corner, American Nuclear Society members will be going to the polls to vote for a vice president/president-elect, treasurer, and members-at-large for the Board of Directors. In January, Nuclear News published statements from candidates for vice president/president-elect and treasurer. This month, we are featuring statements from each nominee for the Board of Directors.

Lisa Marshall
president@ans.org

As I watched the coverage of former U.S. president Jimmy Carter’s earthly farewell, I reflected on being too young to remember his presidency yet being impacted many years later. A man of service, Carter had a connection to the nuclear field, and his experiences shaped his decisions and our enterprise.

Carter was admitted into the U.S. Naval Academy in 1943 and successfully graduated in the top 10 percent of his class. He was chosen by Admiral Rickover, after the legendary two-hour rite of passage interview, to be a naval submariner.

In December 1952, an experimental nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Ontario, experienced mechanical problems compounded by operator error that damaged the reactor core. Carter was part of the team that helped in the cleanup and repair operation.

Garrish

Theodore “Ted” Garrish—who has spent more than four decades working in nuclear—is President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as the Department of Energy’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy, or, NE-1.

The nomination was referred to the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on February 3. Garrish previously held the office from 1987 to 1989 under President Ronald Reagan. Most recently, Kathryn Huff held the NE-1 post, and Michael Goff has served as interim assistant secretary since Huff stepped down in May 2024.

Garrish’s most recent term in public office was as assistant secretary for the Office of International Affairs at the Energy Department, from 2018 to 2021, during Trump’s first term. Supporters say Garrish’s 40-plus years working in the nuclear industry and in nuclear energy oversight positions makes him more than qualified to serve in the DOE office again.

The government of South Africa has announced the passing of Senamile Masango, the country’s first black female nuclear scientist. The 37 year old, who many South Africans thought of as the “queen of science,” died on February 9 from undisclosed causes. Deputy President Paul Mashatile described Masango as “a beacon of hope for many young people, especially women.”

Wright

The U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed Chris Wright, President Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Energy. The confirmation vote was 59–38. Eight Democrats, including both senators from Colorado, signed off on Wright.

Wright—a Colorado native—is founder, chief executive, and chair of the board of Liberty Energy, a Denver-based energy development company specializing in fracking. He also sits on the board of directors for Oklo, a Silicon Valley–based developer of small modular reactors.

Wright was grilled by the Senate’s committee on Energy and Natural Resources during a January 15 hearing, where he made comments in support of nuclear energy and efforts to expand domestic generation in the near future.

He also repeated an earlier stated belief that “there’s no such thing as clean energy or dirty energy.” Wright was called out during the hearing by Senate Democrats for comments he made arguing that climate change has not fueled more frequent and severe wildfires, which, the Washington Post reported, is a claim at odds with the scientific consensus.

WM Symposia, the nonprofit organization dedicated to providing education and information exchange on global radioactive waste management, has announced its WM2025 award winners. Each year, WM Symposia and its supporters recognize and present awards to several individuals based on their contributions in radioactive waste and radioactive material management.

Robertson

Candice Robertson will continue to lead the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management and will become office’s principal deputy assistant secretary, the Energy Communities Alliance (ECA) reported on January 28. Robertson was appointed to the EM-1 position in June 2024, replacing William “Ike” White, who was nominated by President Biden to serve on the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.

Jeff Avery, who served as DOE-EM’s principal deputy assistant secretary, has moved to the National Nuclear Security Administration as the acting associate administrator for management and budget.

Roger Jerrell, who served in the EM office during the President Trump’s first administration, is returning to DOE-EM as a senior advisor. Jerrell most previously served as general counsel for UCOR of Oak Ridge, Tenn.

At the end of 2024, the candidates for the annual American Nuclear Society election were announced. Since then, Catherine Prat, an ANS member since 2012, launched a successful write-in campaign to be considered for a seat on the Board of Directors. Having received at least 200 signatures from Society members in favor of her nomination, Prat is now a candidate by petition, bringing the total number on the ballot to 18 candidates who have been nominated for the positions of ANS vice president/president-elect, treasurer, and six board positions (four U.S. directors, one non-U.S. director, and one student director). Ballots will be sent via email on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, and must be submitted by 1:00 p.m. (EDT) on Tuesday, April 15, 2025.

Shuler

WM Symposia, which hosts the annual Waste Management Conference in Phoenix, Ariz., presented the 2025 WM Lifetime Achievement Award to James M. Shuler, a former Department of Energy manager with a career of more than 50 years in radwaste packaging and transportation.

The award recognizes the long-term commitment of the recipient to solving major nuclear waste challenges, which may include education, research, public policy, or implementation of solutions for managing nuclear wastes, and whose actions have contributed to the resolution of significant nuclear waste management issues.

Ann Bisconti

We welcome ANS members with long careers in the community to submit their own stories so that the personal history of nuclear power can be capured. For information on submitting your stories, contact nucnews@ans.org.

It is 1983. I receive a phone call from Herbert Krugman, my boss in my first job at Marplan, a prestigious Madison Avenue research firm. He had moved to General Electric and hired me through UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute for research that gave GE a blueprint for recruiting top graduates from their key universities. “There is a new organization that will be looking for someone to direct all their research,” he tells me. “I can’t reveal what it’s about, but I told them they have to hire you.”

This new organization was the U.S. Council for Energy Awareness (USCEA), a forerunner of the Nuclear Energy Institute. Industry leaders had set up two main organizations in response to the Three Mile Island-2 accident: one to promote excellence in operations (Institute of Nuclear Power Operations) and one to promote excellence in communications (USCEA). I was charged with conducting all the research necessary to guide a large communications program that included advertising as well as media and public relations.