James T. Ramey, a lawyer and expert on nuclear technology who became one of the most powerful members of the old Atomic Energy Commission, died Aug. 28 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md., of complications from pneumonia. He was 95.

Ramey served as one of five commissioners on the AEC from 1962 to 1973 and became an advocate for peaceful uses of nuclear energy, such as desalinization of sea water.

In 1946, Ramey was a lawyer for the Tennessee Valley Authority when his boss, David Lilienthal, became chairman of the new Atomic Energy Commission. Shortly after, Lilienthal recruited Ramey to join him at the government agency as an assistant general counsel.

Ramey later transferred to the AEC’s Chicago office, where he worked alongside Adm. Hyman Rickover to draft the contract for the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus.

In 1956, Ramey was named executive director of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, a congressional body that oversaw the AEC.

During the next few years, Ramey provided intelligence that proved useful to President John F. Kennedy during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.