Expert on Nuclear-Weapons Effects Speaks at Caltech

PASADENA, Calif.- Charles S. Shapiro, an expert on the effects of nuclear-weapons testing on humans and the environment, will speak about significant findings of his many years of study on this topic at a seminar at 4 p.m. on November 29, in room 142 of the W.M. Keck Engineering Laboratories at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

The talk, "Massive Releases of Radioactivity: A Retrospective Look," will cover Shapiro's extensive knowledge about the consequences of releases of radioactivity from nuclear test explosions, nuclear reactor accidents, waste storage facilities, weapon production facilities, and also the calculated effects from nuclear-war scenario studies.

An emeritus professor of physics and astronomy at San Francisco State and a longtime consultant at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Shapiro has been associated with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute; has investigated (with the cooperation of Soviet scientists) the effects of Soviet bomb tests in the Semipalatinsk-Altai area of Kazakhstan; and along with astronomer Carl Sagan and others has participated at Lawrence Livermore in long-running (1974-1991) studies on "nuclear winter."

Shapiro is also the editor of a number of books on nuclear testing and on the radiological implications of nuclear war.

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Contact: Jill Perry (626) 395-3226 jperry@caltech.edu

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