Pitt Panel Explores the Lingering Effect of Three Mile Island on Industry and the Public to Mark 30th Anniversary
Pitt and Duquesne professors discuss political, economic, and environmental aspects of nuclear power for March 27 roundtable
Thirty years after
the partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, the United
States and the world face a burgeoning “nuclear renaissance” with increasing
interest and investment in nuclear power. But the concerns and lessons of the
March 28, 1979, incident persist in the memory of the public and in how the
industry operates.
The University of Pittsburgh Students for Nuclear Energy will host a March 27
panel to explore Three Mile Island’s influence on the political, economic, and
social development of nuclear power during the past 30 years. The panel also
will address the importance of examining the benefits and shortcomings of
energy sources, including nuclear power, when building an energy
infrastructure. The panel will begin at 3:30 p.m. in Room 343, Alumni Hall,
4227 Fifth Ave., Oakland.
The panel includes Larry Foulke, director of Pitt’s nuclear engineering
program in the Swanson School of Engineering and a 40-plus-year veteran of the
nuclear power industry, discussing the incident’s effect on the attitude of the
American nuclear power industry and the public perception of nuclear power; Stan
Kabala, a research professor at Duquesne University’s Center for
Environmental Research and Education, on the renewed interest in nuclear power,
the public perception of it compared to that of coal, and the threat of high
start-up costs to nuclear power’s future; and Joe Marriott, an assistant
professor in the Swanson School’s Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, on the importance of rationally weighing the benefits and risks of
nuclear power.
The panel will be moderated by noted electric power engineer Gregory Reed,
a Pitt professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the
Swanson School’s Power and Energy Initiative.
There is always newsworthy research and events happening in the Swanson School of Engineering.
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