Background
In researching background information about nuclear power plant accidents for my novel, "The Christmas Special," I studied everything I could to acquaint myself with previous problems or catastrophes that shed light on the vulnerabilities and consequences of a nuclear power plant failures.

I read articles by those who memorialized the TMI accident and those who trivialized it as a media circus over nothing. However, watching the 6 part series featured on this page gave me a much better perspective of the danger our country faced in 1979 as the crisis unfolded. If you are a person who really knows little about nuclear power or feels like you are absolutely sure that nuclear power is the answer to all our energy problems, please watch these historical "Three Mile Island" videos. According to these reports, TMI was a very serious accident.

Many of the lessons learned from 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear power plant incident have dissipated into the fog of our past.



Over 30 years ago America experienced its worst nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. The plant had operated over a year without any serious incidents giving the plant and town a sense of tranquility that added to the problem of the plant's failures on March 28 1979. According to Jim Higgins of the NRC, the chaos of alarms and warning lights confronting the operators that morning made making the critical decisions difficult. Their incorrect assessment of action in fact exacerbated the problem further. In the Novel "The Christmas Special" nuclear plant operators are not only faced with the problem of how to safely handle the plant's operation but the added dilemma of saving their lives from armed men who are there to kill them. 
 


The problems at Three Mile Island were exacerbated by the need of its staff to wear anti-contamination-radiation suits and respirators, hampering them in performing their jobs. In an attack similar to the ones described in "The Christmas Special" operators would have to choose to give up precious time donning protective suits or responding to the myriad of emergency problems that the terrorist attack would create. How many would choose to give their life in preserving the safe operation of the plant is a question that we hope will never have to be answered. Another problem Three Mile Island operators encountered was a lack of reliable communication with NRC and other agencies that could provide help. Communication with the outside under a concerted terrorist attack would be even more difficult or perhaps impossible. 


A tour of the plant at Three Mile Island by the Lieutenant Governor provided a brief but false sense of security as everything seemed to appear under control. The next morning, however, brought with it more problems and the thoughts of evacuating the area. The response by those in charge was greatly delayed due to fear of a public panic as well as more problems with communicating with the NRC. Time was once again wasted on second-guessing, regardless of the fact that numbers were skewed by garbled communication. Once again, lives were put in jeopardy due to lack of appropriate response. A terrorist attack in this situation would require quick thinking as well as actions, neither of which were displayed with this crisis.


The TMI nuclear accident was exacerbated by the lack of or misinformation provided by their "experts". After the first initial fallout, the media began to grow more demanding, asking more specific questions and prying for more direct answers. When their questions were skirted around, they began growing hostile. The general attitude from those in charge was not at all reassuring to the public. Suggestions were made that the immediate area be evacuated, but the warnings were not heeded. The attitude that prevailed then is still evident today as the Nuclear Power Industry fights to create more nuclear power plants while cavalierly disregarding the potential of a nuclear catastrophic accident as a risk too small to worry about.


The Hydrogen bubble that was supposedly forming at Three Mile Island was likened to 'sitting on a time bomb'. Experts said it was ready to burst, in turn causing a meltdown. The experts were torn; some of them didn't believe that there even was a threat to begin with. In fact, the president himself, Jimmy Carter, made a special trip to Three Mile Island to assess the situation himself. The fact that the experts couldn't come to a unanimous decision speaks volumes about the lack of a plan. If this had been an attack, and the response time was this slow and unorganized, it's almost unimaginable to think of the casualties that would result.

 


During President Carter's visit, "nuclear experts" spent time going over the information that they believed indicated a probable disaster. Their conclusion was that a huge explosion was imminent, but one renegade scientist disagreed with that synopsis and soon was able to prove their dooms day assessment wrong. Human error, again had taken place and a group of highly esteemed "Nuclear Experts" embarrassingly discovered that they had all been using an incorrect formula in their calculations. Today America still depends on these "Nuclear Experts" whose assessment of the safety of nuclear power has proven far from infallible. After experiencing a case where the majority of the "Nuclear Experts" were proven wrong, the public must learn to be more cynical of present day safety claims by these "Nuclear experts" and the NRC?"