Posted on 05/04/2022 4:11:16 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown in central Pennsylvania was and remains the worst accident of its kind in the United States, but, as a new documentary shows, it could have been so much worse.
In the four-part Netflix docuseries “Meltdown: Three Mile Island,” which debuted Wednesday, May 4, Rick Parks — a former leading engineer at the facility — reveals how cover-ups, falsifications of safety tests and downright dangerous corner-cutting caused the terrifying nuclear event and could have potentially triggered a second, bigger one that would have affected a huge chunk of the Eastern Seaboard.
What Parks found risked America being on “the verge of an apocalypse” capable of triggering “a meltdown that could take out Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, DC,” Tom Devine, of the watchdog group Government Accountability Project, says in the doc.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I drove there during that time.
Long story, involved a friend and his girlfriend.
Totally overblown with the doomsday scenarios. Never close to a serious problem.
But what we REALLY need now is a bunch of Chinese solar panels and windmills.
They should have just dredged up the old anti-nuke classic “The China Syndrome”.
;-)
More people died at Chappaquiddick than 3 Mile Island.
So close, yet so far away.😫
Alec Baldwin killed more people than died at 3 Mile Island.
Number of people treated for radiation sickness/poisoning as a result of TMI: 0
Number of cases of cancer attributed to radiation leaked from TMI: 0
Number of children born with birth defects attributable to the TMI accident: 0
Number of people killed by the TMI accident: 0
Most polar cranes are rated for 125 Ton.
LOL! I remember that way back then! If I remember correctly, it was an actor playing nuclear engineer Jimmy Carter who went into the reactor chamber first. He knew enough he did not even need a radioactive protection suit.
Then the black cleaning lady was sent in to mop up the radioactive mess.
Arkansas Power and Light’s Nuclear Units 1 and 2 are supposedly the same design as 3 mile Island. In 1985 and 1986 I had a job doing as-built documentation of those units so they could make another but it was never built. Great job though where I was able to save enough money to pay my way school at UT Knoxville and become a Mechanical Engineer. Soon after I left Russellville for school, Ronald Simmons killed 15 members of his own family and a gas station attendant. They were a bunch of incestuous people. His grandchildren were his children, etc. The family started out in NH and got ran out of town and moved to New Mexico and got run off there too…ended up in the Ozarks Dardanelle I think. Russellville is right in the area. He killed many of them right at his front door as they brought him Christmas gifts.
After all, they had a hanoi jane movie to live up to, for drama.
“Its always a thrill flying into HIA and banking tightly over TMI.”
I’ve done that (as a passenger). I had a sister who lived in Harrisburg at the time and we were worried what would happen.
Trumps was to blame according to an MSNBC experts.
I remember thinking at the time that he was overreacting a bit.
I still think so, of course.
I don't remember any subsequent stories about birth defects
from the pregnant mothers drinking milk from the cows
grazing nearby the thing. There were some very small
releases of slightly radioactive steam, but I don't think
that anybody was harmed by it. But, who knows?
“The Nuclear Nightmare That Almost Took Out the East Coast”
Any downside to that?
I could watch the steam from the cooling towers from our front porch. Lived just south of Annville. Interesting couple
of days for sure!
I had family in the Harrisburg area that evacuated, and others in Lancaster County that did not. One of the latter group died of cancer at age 20 in 1983. We didn’t think of any connection to TMI at the time, but later there were reports of elevated cancer rates in the area following TMI, so I just don’t know.
I had recently gotten out of the Army when this happened.
I was looking for an HD Sportster at a dealer in Rising Sun, MD in early April 1979. The salesman, being a BSer like most salesman told me they only had 2 in stock and no more were expected because the truck drivers were afraid to make the run between York (PA) assembly and anywhere east due to TMI. Yeah, right.
I bought one of the in stock bikes and still have it to this day. Runs great even with the tiny bit of radiation it has.
Three Mile Island was a nothing. You want scary near cataclysmic events?
“ The 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash was an accident that occurred near Goldsboro, North Carolina, on 23 January 1961. A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress carrying two 3–4-megaton Mark 39 nuclear bombs broke up in mid-air, dropping its nuclear payload in the process.”
Only one bomb was recovered. All but one of its safeties had failed. The other weapon is still buried in a field. It was considered safer to leave it than attempt to unearth it.
I wonder how the U.S. government would have covered up wiping out a large portion of Noth Carolina?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Goldsboro_B-52_crash
Was living in the area when it happened! Scared the bejeebers out of me & family!
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