Heartland Institute Expert Available to Speak About New Nuclear Plant Approvals

Published February 9, 2012

FEBRUARY 9 — The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission today approved licenses to build two new nuclear reactors. The plants, which will be in Georgia, are the first to gain government authorization since before the Three Mile Island incident in 1979.

Heartland Institute Science Director Jay Lehr appeared on TV and radio nearly 60 times last year — including the Sean Hannity Show, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC — as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan put the stability of the Fukushima nuclear power plant at risk. (See some clips here.) He urged the public and the media not to panic — advice that proved prescient. Japanese authorities recently concluded no local residents or power plant employees were harmed by radiation.

Dr. Lehr (Ph.D., groundwater hydrology) is the author of more than 1,000 magazine and journal articles and 30 books. He is editor of Rational Readings on Environmental Concerns, McGraw-Hill’s Handbook on Environmental Science, Health and Technology (2000), Wiley’s Remediation Technologies Handbook (2004), Environmental Instrumentation and Analysis Handbook (2005), and the six-volume Water Encyclopedia (Wiley Interscience, 2005). He recently completed for Wiley Interscience Nuclear Energy Encyclopedia: Science, Technology, and Applications (2011).

If you would like to book Dr. Lehr as a guest on your program, or interview him for an article, please contact Tammy Nash at [email protected] and 312/377-4000. After regular business hours, please contact Jim Lakely, director of communications at The Heartland Institute, at [email protected] and 312/731-9364.

The Heartland Institute is a 28-year-old national nonprofit organization with offices in Chicago, Illinois; Washington, DC; Austin, Texas; Tallahassee, Florida; and Columbus, Ohio. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.