Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear disaster 35 years later

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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.”

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.”

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