Three Mile Island: Imminent Nuclear Disaster Averted

On March 16th, 1979, just twelve days before disaster struck at Three Mile Island, the blockbuster movie, China Syndrome, hit American theaters, casting a terrifying glow on the nuclear power industry, which had grown exponentially since the 1973 oil embargo forced a nation to embrace alternative energy sources.

What Happened At Three-Mile Island?

Built atop an island on the Susquehanna River, some 10 miles from Pennsylvania’s state capital at Harrisburg, at 4:00 A.M. on March 28th, a pressure valve in the Unit Two reactor at Three Mile Island jammed in the open position, spilling radioactive cooling water into adjoining buildings.

Emergency cooling pumps immediately kicked into action, however, trained employees of the Metropolitan Edison Company misread the situation, shutting off the emergency coolant system, which in turn heated the uranium core to over 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit—just 1,000 degrees shy of a full reactor meltdown.

News of the impending disaster went public by 8:00 A.M. despite Met-Ed’s PR campaign of obfuscation, which combined with a media-feeding frenzy that sent local residents into a state of mass panic and fear.

Twelve hours later, Met-Ed nuclear engineers came to grips with their mistake, restarting the cooling pumps, which dropped core temperatures with less than an hour to spare before a complete meltdown became a reality. Two days later, a bubble of highly flammable hydrogen gas formed in the number two reactor, leading Governor Dick Thornburgh to issue an evacuation order of some 140,000 residents living near the crippled reactor.

President Jimmy Carter Intervenes

With nerves at a breaking point, President Jimmy Carter—a trained nuclear engineer who had helped dismantle a damaged Canadian reactor while serving in the U.S. Navy—arrived on site to calm the runaway fears of distressed locals and the American public at large.

After the hydrogen bubble was safely bled from the reactor, it was determined by federal authorities that while plant workers had been exposed to unhealthy levels of radiation, no one outside of the Three Mile Island complex had been exposed.

Three-Mile Island Ends Nuclear Energy Revolution

Once stabilized, a robotic camera was dropped into the core, revealing a complete meltdown of some 50% of the reactor’s uranium fuel rods. The accident galvanized anti-nuclear activists throughout the United States, effectively ending all growth in a once-promising industry. As of 2021, no additional nuclear power plants have been built in the United States since the accident, making Three Mile Island, a major turning point in a nation’s thirst for clean energy.