Members of the United States Senate on Thursday unanimously voted to confirm physicist Ernest Moniz, Ph. D. to lead the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said the move will be very good for southern Ohio.

Brown met Moniz last month to discuss Ohio priorities and ensure that the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, which he said would help create 4,000 jobs in southern Ohio, will receive support of the DOE. He also pressed Dr. Moniz to continue the Administration’s support of the cleanup at the DOE site — a project currently employing 2,400 people, Brown said — and to remain committed to working with community partners and the labor force to ensure the cleanup remains on pace.