Crisis Offers Chance to Re-Examine, Upgrade Nuclear Plants

Newswise — A fresh look at the safety systems for current and future nuclear power plants may be the silver lining in the current crisis involving nuclear reactors damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan. Physicist Robert J. McTaggart, the coordinator of nuclear education at South Dakota State University, is available to discuss the safety and future design considerations of nuclear power plants. McTaggart, an associate professor in SDSU’s Department of Physics, can also supply context by looking at how industry responded to the 1979 Three Mile Island accident at a nuclear facility in Pennsylvania. “More than half of the reactors in the United States have been in operation longer than 30 years,” McTaggart said. “It is wise for the nuclear industry to re-examine and upgrade their procedures and infrastructure in light of recent events in Japan. In fact, the safety improvements made to nuclear power plants after Three Mile Island resulted in more efficient operations. Nevertheless, we should be building the next generation of nuclear power plants that simply avoid the problems faced in Japan. Our demand for electricity continues to grow, and nuclear energy can provide the large amounts of on-demand carbon-free electricity we need to combat climate change.” McTaggart helps oversee SDSU’s minor in nuclear engineering, which helps prepare employees for the nuclear power industry as many current employees near retirement age and as new plants are being designed. McTaggart is an experimental nuclear/particle physicist, who earned his Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University. He has worked with the large particle accelerator at Fermilab in Batavia, Ill. About South Dakota State UniversityFounded in 1881, South Dakota State University is the state’s Morrill Act land-grant institution as well as its largest, most comprehensive school of higher education. SDSU confers degrees from seven different colleges representing more than 200 majors, minors and options. The institution also offers 23 master’s degree programs and 12 Ph.D. programs. The work of the university is carried out on a residential campus in Brookings, at sites in Sioux Falls, Pierre and Rapid City, and through Cooperative Extension offices and Agricultural Experiment Station research sites across the state.