Nuclear waste expert to speak at UI

Rodney Ewing helped scuttle plans for nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain

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Amy Charles | 2013.05.01 | 09:30 AM

Rodney Ewing, an academic and longtime campaigner for a cautious, science-based approach to nuclear waste disposal, will speak at the University of Iowa at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 2.
Ewing was a key figure in scuttling plans for the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain, a cavern in Nevada slated to hold 77,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste. He was appointed last year by President Obama to head the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, charged with overseeing the U.S. Department of Energy's policies on nuclear waste storage.
Ewing’s talk, to be held in Room W151 in the Pappajohn Business Building, comes amid conflicting views on the role of nuclear energy in a so-called green economy, balanced with the safety of reactors and the safe storage of nuclear waste. He will describe the difficulty predicting how radioactive waste behaves over tens to hundreds of thousands of years, and how storage technologies perform under the strain of the radioactivity itself, the earth’s movement, and erosive forces like water. Honesty about these uncertainties—both within regulatory communities and in communicating with the public—is high on his agenda.http://now.uiowa.edu/2013/04/nuclear-waste-expert-speak-ui