A couple days after the TMI incident, I got a call from my mother. She was the office manager for Bechtel Corporation, a world-wide construction company. At the time, they were building a nuclear plant in Salem, New Jersey, and had recently completed a similar plant at Peach Bottom (York County) PA.

As soon as I answered the phone, mom said, sounding quite shocked, “You’re still at home? The engineers here are all saying that they wouldn’t want to be within a hundred miles of Three Mile Island!”

That was good enough for me – I hastily packed a few things, and drove to North Carolina. Stayed there about a week, at which point it seemed safe to go back to PA. Longest week of my life, wondering if I’d ever see home again. And by the way… I’d just seen “The China Syndrome” a few days before the TMI incident.

Randall