Pitt Panel Explores the Lingering Effect of Three Mile Island on Industry and the Public to Mark 30th Anniversary

PITTSBURGH-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.

###

3/25/09/tmw