On April 7, 2000 the chemical engineering department invited Dr. Jane Long, Dean of the Mackay School of Mines of the University of Nevada, Reno to discuss her background and her thoughts of nuclear issues in industry. Pizza was served to the ravenous chemical engineers.

 Dr. Long began with some general background information about herself. She described how she was the only woman student who graduated from Brown University and that she took pride in accomplishing that. She got her degree in biomedical research and when she obtained her degree she really did not know what she wanted to do with it. She eventually went back to college at the University of California, Berkeley and never got a B again. This was due to her enjoyment and interest in the exploding field of science and engineering. She described how everything used to be done by hand and how different science and technology is that we have the use of computers. She received her Ph.D. at Berkeley.

 With her degree and a strong background of science she decided to work with the Nuclear Research Program, which was a project, being researched in Washington at the time. In this project, she was assigned to build a nuclear repository in a shaft so nuclear waste could be stored. She unfortunately had a lot of experiences with "highly unethical practices".

 She had an early contact with high social importance and it really did not suit her fancy. Through her experiences she saw that the attitude of nuclear waste was that one should "worry about it later". In the end she knew that someone would still have to worry about it 10,000 years later until the decay of nuclear particles has subsided.

 The class then entered a huge discussion about nuclear power with her. Her view of nuclear power is that she is not against it. The class asked her numerous questions why she sided advocating for nuclear usage. She answered all questions that the students had for her.

 She wrapped up her discussion by telling the class about how she was and still is involved with the situation at Yucca Mountain. She also described some of her experiences in other countries than the United States, such as Finland and illustrates how their procedure for dealing with nuclear waste was different. She believed that they dealt with nuclear waste better than the United States by comparing the dollar amounts spent. The United States spends an average of $500 million as opposed to that of Finland who spends very little of their nuclear waste project. Moreover, even with less spending Finland has a solution to their problem whereas the Unites States does not. Her final thought of the discussion was that she recommends an underground nuclear waste monitor and retrieval system and some thoughts of safely transporting the waste. One important fact that she stated was that peanut butter is more toxic than trichloroethane.

 The chemical engineering class thanked Dr. long for her presence and her answering of questions.
 

Submitted by

Craig Pribila
ChE 102, Class of 2003