Annual reminders of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident seem less meaningful to those who weren’t here; as passing years try to heal old wounds. For my family, those memories of 1979 linger on like bad dreams you’d rather forget.
my decision to evacuate on day one was a smart move!
On March 28, 1979, the morning of the accident, I was some 12-miles upstream, on the second floor of the Evangelical Press Building, at 3rd and Reily Streets in Harrisburg. Our secretary burst into the room around 9:00 AM alerting us to the radio announcement that something bad was happening at TMI. A quick trip to the roof confirmed that heavy cloud cover was moving north over the city…bringing who-knew-what in it.
Within 2-hours, I and my 9-month, pregnant wife were speeding west on the PA Turnpike heading for Westmoreland County. That’s where our first son was born just nine days later. Early on, Governor Thornburgh announced an evacuation advisory for pregnant women within a 5-mile radius of TMI; this later increased to 20-miles. It seemed my decision to evacuate on day one was a smart move!
both of his radiation monitors were “maxed-out”.
With government assurance that frequent planned releases of gasses (needed to minimize a growing gas bubble over the reactor core, leading to a possible reactor meltdown) would dissipate in the atmosphere. Leaving my wife and new son safely in Latrobe, PA, I returned alone to Harrisburg and my job. 24/7 media coverage kept pressure on government officials who tried to calm our fears.
Official spokesmen said that any radioactivity being vented into the atmosphere could be breathed by humans…since it would soon dissipate in the atmosphere. The reality, as I quickly learned, was at times the opposite.
I worked for the Bureau of State Parks, in the basement of the Evangelical Press Building. During the TMI accident, we were told that the EPA had converted the entomology office across the hall, into a water sample testing room. Water samples from TMI were brought in for testing on a regular basis.
Working late one evening, I met an EPA technician in the elevator. He was wearing two radiation monitors on his vest, which he explained would alert him to any radiation exposure. But his response to my questions about radiation he had experienced even in the City was sobering.
He claimed that one night while leaving our building, he passed under a parking lot light and was shocked to see that both of his radiation monitors were “maxed-out”. He had entered a 200-millirem radioactive field in the air that was passing through Harrisburg, and quickly retreated back into the building. (The internet says that a typical chest X-ray is 10-millirem…must be true…Right?)
Two hours later he ventured back outside and fortunately the radiation had passed. He explained to me that radiation releases from TMI didn’t necessarily disperse or dilute into the atmosphere as we were led to believe. Sometimes the gas takes on a “laminar flow”, like a cold stream flowing through a warm lake…the cold stream water doesn’t readily mix and dissipate. I asked him how often this occurred over Harrisburg and he just shrugged!
Maybe the EPA guy was overreacting…maybe not!
OK, so what’s the point? During times of uncertainty (and possibly panic) who can you trust? From my experience, the TMI accident of 40-years ago taught me that nuclear technology (which until then we had taken for granted as a safe energy producer) could bite us without warning. And, in a crises, common sense and self preservation often trump official advisories. Maybe the EPA guy was overreacting…maybe not!
Regardless, I believe that our real challenge has been creeping up since TMI originally came online. And that is…how can we continue to create and store radioactive waste from TMI in the middle of the Susquehanna River; a natural resource that feeds one of the most productive estuaries in the world? Who can guarantee that society will be stable enough thousands of years from now to guard, monitor and manage this radioactive waste, protect the environment and ensure the safety of future generations? Seems to me that we are selfishly reaping short-term energy benefits today, while handicapping their future.
Charles