April 5, 2011 - Knox County Public Library's Brown Bag Green Book series continues with a special talk, "Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi: Future Commercial Use of Nuclear Energy," by nuclear safety expert Harold R. Denton, on Wednesday, April 20, 12 p.m. in the East Tennessee History Center, 601 South Gay Street.

"This month we will be focusing on a critical and timely subject," says Emily Ellis, coordinator of the series. "The events in Japan have all of us looking carefully at nuclear energy and rightly so. Even though we are not focusing on an individual book, the Library has many books and articles that will help everyone with their consideration of this topic."

Denton has over 30 years experience in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's nuclear safety regulation program. He was the Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation for almost a decade. Immediately following the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, President Jimmy Carter appointed Denton as his personal representative at the TMI site. He subsequently worked closely with Governor Thornburgh and other public officials. He was the news media spokesman for the federal government during the crisis and directed NRC staff activities to assess and mitigate the consequences.

As a nuclear safety expert, he has visited many U.S. power reactors and has traveled extensively to nuclear facilities worldwide. He was in the first group of Americans allowed to visit the Chernobyl site and was instrumental in establishing nuclear safety cooperation with the former USSR. Denton attended North Carolina State College, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in nuclear engineering and did graduate work at the University of Maryland.

On May 18, the series will return to its book discussion format featuring Edye Ellis, host of The Good Life on Home & Garden Television, former anchor with WBIR-TV Channel 10 and breast cancer survivor, talking about Living Downstream: A Scientist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment by Sandra Steingraber.

The Brown Bag Green Book series is sponsored by Knox County Public Library and the City of Knoxville. For more information, please call Emily Ellis at 215-8723 or visit www.knoxlib.org.