Several weeks after the TMI incident, things had settled down a bit, and attention moved to determine the costs of the incident, not only to the reactor but to the region. Police, fire, and medical first responders, government and business closures, and many others were disrupted and incurred costs, and so might be eligible for Federal disaster financial aid. The financial effect was in the millions of dollars.
We measured a string to be 25 miles long at the scale of the maps
Pa. state government requested disaster financial aid but it was denied by the Federal agency managing the aid program. The requirement was that a certain amount of people had to live within a 25-mile radius of the disaster, and Federal agency determined that too few people lived within the area to qualify. Our State planning people contested the population figures, but the Federal people stated they had computers and census data that gave them accurate population calculations, and would not budge.
At the time of the TMI incident I was working for the State government. We had our own demographics and were sure the Federal numbers were too low, and were perplexed as to the source of the discrepancy. While it was a relatively small difference, the difference resulted in being denied Federal aid.
How to resolve the dilemma? We were not computerized, but we came up with a process to challenge the accuracy of Federal figures. Our solution was crude. We gathered topographic maps sufficient to show the required 25-mile radius. Another employee and I went to the stage of the Forum Building and laid out the maps and taped them together. We measured a string to be 25 miles long at the scale of the maps, and with a thumbtack placed in Unit 2 we scribed a 25-mile diameter circle. Then with pad and pencil we recorded the municipalities and their current population. If the scribed 25-mile arc bisected a community, we made an educated guess of the population within the required area, based on our knowledge of the community. Our total population figure was above the required number.
Our inelegant solution was the impetus to get much needed financial disaster aid.
Then, staring at the large map before us, I noticed an interesting possible cause for the difference in the two population numbers. The Federal agency (as well as the media) kept referring to “Middletown” when describing the incident’s location. And if the Federal agency happened to use “Middletown” as the center of the radius instead of “TMI reactor 2”, the radius would exclude the population of a significant part of Lancaster City and suburbs. We reported to our agency that we confirmed our population figures and suggested that Pennsylvania formally request the Federal agency recalculate based on the proper centroid. This was done, and the Federal agency came within a few thousand people of our figure, just enough to meet the requirement. Our inelegant solution was the impetus to get much needed financial disaster aid.
Wilmer