merrifield. our next witness, mr. todd allen, senior fellow, the clean energy program for the third way. dr. allen, thanks for being with us. you're recognized for five minutes. and please get the microphone up close. >> absolutely. good morning. chairman whitfield, ranking member rush, other distinguished member of the subcommittee. on behalf of third way, i greatly appreciate the opportunity to provide testimony on the importance of nuclear energy innovation. my perspective on nuclear energy comes from a diverse career. my first job after college i lived on a floating nuclear reactor as an officer in the uk nuclear submarine fleet. i've seen firsthand a generation that believes in nuclear technology as a critical component for providing clean energy. i've worked in the national laboratory system. as deputy for science and technology at idaho national laboratory, working to open up the facilities to university and industry users across the country. now i'm at a think tank where i think. third way creates and brings t

>> i think the way jeff merrifield answered is probably accurate. think the division director there is competent, young woman who i think is making sure that they're as prepared as they can be. we expect they'll do as good a job as they can. >> i agree with that. mr. fertel references a director of the office of new reactors. she's a very talented, young woman. i think she'll do an exceptional job for that team. >> we hear discussion about small nuclear modular reactors and great hope for them. so are sodium cool, some are lead cool, light water. how many of these so-called small modular reactors are operating today around the world? anybody have any idea? >> i don't think that, from a commercial standpoint, there's hardly any. but all of the submarines are using small modular reactors and aircraft carriers. there's experience with them. now, they're different but there's a lot of experience. in our country now, mr. chairman, electricity growth, thanks to really good efficiency and things like that, also probably being hurt by our economy a bit. but

merrifield garden center has yearsn business for 45 and they have never seen such unusual weather in mid-may. cheryl conner, abc 7 news. kimberly: now the strong wind ather, thisller we tree and all the damage. roz plater is live in northeast to show it up close. all ofhis from the wind? working theory. this building behind me on a construction, appears gutted out on the back end is also open. they believe the wind got inside, swirled around, and lou out the wall of this building -- and blew out the wall of this building. it happened just after 2:00 sunday, the old wall from the down, plant came crashing snapping the utility pole, dragging down street signs. all of that damage likely due to a strong wind gust. perhapsuess is the wind played a portion because it was swirling as bad as it is out here. roz: the old plant is being but firefighters quic at the time. >> we threw everything we had added, including our special ops are tracking dog, who made three rounds just as a precaution. so far, in the end, there was nobody inside the building and nobody injured. roz: once deemed safe, i