Peter Burns
Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
Henry J. Massman Chair and Professor of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences
- Environmental mineralogy and crystallography
- Mineral crystal structures and crystal chemistry
- Mineral structural energetics
- Mineral paragenesis
- Nuclear waste disposal
Burns’s Latest News
Burns in the News
South Bend Tribune
Notre Dame professor breaks down pros, cons of nuclear energy
October 22, 2026
“The Cook plant has two large reactors up on Lake Michigan,” University of Notre Dame Dorini Family Professor of Energy Studies Peter Burns said. “We already benefit from those. Those are the big classic reactors that were developed over a long time in the U.S.”
South Bend Tribune
County resident, officials react to proposed Amazon, AEP nuclear plant
October 21, 2026
It would take 57 millionths of a gram of uranium from a nuclear power plant to power a Dyson hairdryer for 15 minutes, according to University of Notre Dame Dorini Family Professor of Energy Studies Peter Burns.
South Bend Tribune
Notre Dame's Science Policy Initiative holds public talk about nuclear energy
March 18, 2024
As part of its Michiana Science Café series, the Science Policy Initiative at Notre Dame presents “A Conversation About: Nuclear Facts, Fiction and Future” at 6 p.m. March 20 at the St. Joseph County Public Library, 304 S. Main St. Peter Burns, a professor in Notre Dame’s department of chemistry & biochemistry and civil and environmental engineering and Earth sciences, will talk about the current state of nuclear energy research in the United States and discuss the future implications of nuclear energy as an alternative energy source.
The Independent
Race to block burial of nuclear waste by the Great Lakes over fear of tainting crucial fresh water supply
March 03, 2022
“One of them is commercial spent nuclear fuel, and that’s what the Canadian reactors tend to produce, and that’s what commercial power plants produce,” Peter Burns, director of the Center for Sustainable Energy at the University of Notre Dame, tells The Independent.
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