Three Mile Island Documentary: Nuclear Power's Promise and Peril | Retro Report | The New York Times

More than three decades after the accident at Three Mile Island cast a shadow on the atomic dream, is America again ready to give nuclear energy a chance?

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Three Mile Island Documentary: Nuclear Power's Promise and Peril | Retro Report | The New York Times

[firebat]

United States Government: we can't send people in here with all of that radiation.
The Soviets: Get on the roof.

[finndahuman]

Three Mile Island: *<Scares everyone in Central PA>*
Chernobyl: *_hold my Plutonium Rod_*

[bustdetector]

3.6 mile island, not great but not terrible.

[tanimationchannel]

The problem with nuclear power isn't nuclear power, the problem is people who don't follow safety protocols and regulations.
People like that shouldn't be trusted with regular power plants much more so nuclear.

[beenaplumber]

We make a huge mistake when we talk about nuclear power as if it were all one technology. That's like talking about fire as if it were one technology. Coal fires power plants, gunpowder fires bullets, propane fires my stove, and heating oil fires the boiler in my apartment building. It's all fire, but we don't talk about them all as "fire power." Nuclear power come in a wide variety of designs, from the tiny power packs used on space probes to the massive propulsion systems on the largest aircraft carriers. In fact, the smoke detector in your home most likely uses nuclear power as well as electric power. Designs exist that can make nuclear-powered generators that are safe for a given location and use.

Chernobyl had numerous engineering and human factors that simply don't exist today (i.e., flaws in the design of the reactor were a Soviet state secret, so no one at the plant was allowed to learn how to deal with them or even discuss them), and Fukoshima was only a nuclear disaster because, in an area that's prone to earthquakes and tsunamis, they decided to put the emergency generator in the easily-flooded basement. All of the redundant safeties worked just fine except a power source for the cooling water when the plant was shut down and the basement was flooded. Consider though, with as many reactors as we have in the world, we have a pretty good track record, even with the utter lunacy of the Chernobyl design (which would never be built again) and the Fukoshima generator location. How many coal miners and oil workers (mariners on tankers, people on oil rigs, ferry pilots, etc.) have died bringing us the fire that is so superior to the atom?

[handsomeman-child]

No one may have died from the incident, but the effect this had on the public's perception of nuclear power will likely result in the death of millions. Just imagine how many more nuclear plants we'd have powering this country today if this never happened. Electricity would be so much cheaper and the world wouldn't be about to have its own meltdown from burning so many fossil fuels.

[feanorn]

"Three Mile Island Documentary"
Not a single word was spend on how and why it happened. Mkay.

[teopini]

Does anybody see a slight difference between how the news spread out in America to how it was handled in Chernobyl?

[kellysims]

I was 9yrs old. I lived in one of the closest houses to TMI. My 3rd grade class was already held in the nuclear shelter in the school. I remember. It was very scary. My narcissist mother would not leave because she was getting media attention. This programed me for a life of anxiety.

[ryrin]

Oh yes get rid of that dangerous nuclear energy! Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go snort some coal.

[xPeterpanx]

I lived close to this plant. When I was in school, they gave our parents permission forms for the school to give us iodine pills in case of a meltdown..the pill would protect our thyroid gland from exposure..the test alarms where always scary to hear everyday..

[BlackMidalia]

I don't like how they don't get into the details.

[jaridkeen]

I love Nuclear Power it is a Great Power Source and 21 Century Power is Cleaner and Much Safer. We can use Thorium and that is not as Radioactive and cannot have a Meltdown

[michealoflaherty]

it was quick thinking that turned this "potential Chernobyl into a mere Three Mile Island"

[ikesteroma]

There are two important things we must always keep in mind...

1) The engineers at TMI went home to their families at the end of the day and got a higher dose of radiation from their own basements (as a result of naturally occurring radiation that comes from the earth) than they got at the power plant during the meltdown.

2) The least afraid people to walk around at a nuclear power facility are the very same engineers who built and designed the structure.

[Eclipse]

I live right outside the island. I can see the reactors right from my doorstep.

[jgedutis]

I would think someone dying of a terminal disease would love the opportunity to die saving untold numbers of people.

[seanwebb]

This morning in Toronto we received an alert regarding a nuclear incident at the Pickering Nuclear Power Plant about 30 minutes away. It caught our attention.

[brennanconway]

I live in Harrisburg and have swam in the waters directly next to the plant... Nuclear is safe, and actually causes less deaths than coal (due to air pollution)

[nakorisilani]

On my way to watch The China Syndrome now...