Mar 28, 2014

March 28, 1979 — 35 years ago — the nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island in eastern Pennsylvania suffered a partial meltdown, triggering the worst nuclear disaster in U.S. history, “although its small radioactive releases had no detectable health effects on plant workers or the public, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has reported.”

: Negatives from Jimmy Carter’s trip to Three Mile Island, Pennslyvania, April 1, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

: Goldsboro, Pa. with cooling towers in the background of Three Mile Island, taken on April 6, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)Goldsboro, Pa. with cooling towers in the background of Three Mile Island, taken on April 6, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

: Signs by South Bridge turnoff Highway 114, April 6, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)Signs by South Bridge turnoff Highway 114, April 6, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

: Helicopter over TMI, April 11, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

: Three Mile Island (TMI) Nuclear Plants, the site of the country’s worst nuclear accident in 1979, is up for sale by GPU Nuclear, the company that owns and operates the plant. This is the view from inside of the cooling tower for nuclear reactor unit Two, the unit that had the accident. In the distance, lower right, is one of the cooling tower for unit One. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/July 14, 1998)

: Three Mile Island (TMI) Nuclear Plants, the site of the country’s worst nuclear accident in 1979, is up for sale by GPU Nuclear, the company that owns and operates the plant. Ken Gramilch, one of the control room operator, monitors instrument panels for the primary nuclear sites of TMI plant. (Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun File/July 14, 1998)

: The accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant near Harrisburg, Pa., March 28, 1979, exposed the hazards of nuclear power. Two weeks before the accident the York Daily Record team of reporter Jim Hill and photographer Bil Bowden published a series of reports warning that TMI’s owners were operating the plant with inadequate safety precautions. Bowden’s night shot of TMI’s cooling towers accompanied the earliest reports of that event. (Bill Bowden/York Daily Record/AP)

: Wearing protective boots, President Carter, center right, accompanied by Dr. Harold Denton, then Director of the U.S. Nuclear Agency, left, and then Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburg, left-rear, tour the control room of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Middletown, Pa. in this April 1, 1979 black-and-white file photo, four days after the nuclear accident. A quarter century after the country’s worst nuclear accident, the atomic power industry is talking about revival. Yet no one can predict when a new reactor will be built and perceptions about safety. (AP Photo, Files)Wearing protective boots, President Carter, center right, accompanied by Dr. Harold Denton, then Director of the U.S. Nuclear Agency, left, and then Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburg, left-rear, tour the control room of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Middletown, Pa. in this April 1, 1979 black-and-white file photo, four days after the nuclear accident. A quarter century after the country’s worst nuclear accident, the atomic power industry is talking about revival. Yet no one can predict when a new reactor will be built and perceptions about safety. (AP Photo, Files)

: This April 11, 1979 file photo released by the US National Archives shows a view of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania. Nearly 32 years after the March 28, 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, the Fukushima nuclear accident is considered “worse than Three Mile Island, but not as great as Chernobyl,” Andre-Claude Lacoste, head of France’s safety agency, said on March 14, 2011 (US National Archives/AFP/Getty Images)

: Fallout shelter sign. Goldsboro, Pennsylvania, April 7, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)Fallout shelter sign. Goldsboro, Pennsylvania, April 7, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

: Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector checking health physics, April 2, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

: Three Mile Island, April 11, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

: Three Mile Island. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

: President Jimmy Carter leaving [Three Mile Island] for Middletown, Pennsylvania, April 1, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

: Overall view [Environmental Protection Agency] sampling station, April 4, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

: The Environmental Protection Agency water sampling locations map, April 7, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

: Anti-nuke rally in Harrisburg [Pennsylvania] at the Capitol, April 9, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

: Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector looking at meters in control room number 2 on April 3, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

: Aerial image of Three Mile Island taken on April 10, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)Aerial image of Three Mile Island taken on April 10, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

: “We Survived TMI” sign in Middletown, Pennsylvania, taken on April 6, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

: Reactor piping photographed on April 3, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

: A worker checks his hand for contamination on April 3, 1979. This photograph is a part of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island collection for the Library of Congress. (Credit: Library of Congress)

A report from Dickinson College says that on March 28, “conflicting reports from various sources, including the utility and its regulators, made it difficult for others, including state officials and journalists, to assess the situation.

That day the NRC, the federal oversight body for all nuclear plants in the United States, sent assistance from both its regional office and from Washington D.C. Metropolitan Edison (Met Ed), a subsidiary of General Public Utilities (GPU) asserted “Everything is under control,” though many at the plant had doubts.”

Around the web

Today in history
Scientists try to defuse nuclear fallout fears
Dickinson College’s timeline of the Three Mile Island disaster

3 Comments

Putting Best Faces On - March 31, 1979 | Past Daily
Mar 31, 2014 @ 13:58:05

[…] Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear disaster 35 years later […]

Jay
Mar 29, 2014 @ 14:15:10

For anyone interested, there are 3 sources for a lot of information on Three Mile Island and the devastating health effects that have come to light:

(1) http://www.enenews.com

(2) http://www.nuclearhotseat.com

(3) Watch the award-winning video “Three Mile Island Revisited” on youtube

Three Mile Island anniversary: The day that scared the hell out of us – New York’s PIX11 / WPIX-TV : power plant classes
Mar 28, 2014 @ 13:12:20

[…] Baltimore Sun […]

Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear disaster 35 years later

Around the web

3 Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel