The "Glowing Memory" Story

It was an ordinary day. I was teaching (trying to teach) school today and we were listening to the radio and watching TV for updates. It was March 29, 1979 and the number 2 reactor at Three Mile Island has a problem. It was only about two weeks ago that "The China Syndrome" was released. This movie featured Jane Fonda as a news anchor and Michael Douglas as her cameraman who are at a nuclear plant on the west coast doing a series on nuclear power. They were talking about the safety of the plant and someone playing a nuclear safety expert says that a meltdown could render an area the size of Pennsylvania permanently uninhabitable. Wow! Now it is really happening near us. Three Mile Island is an island in the Susquehanna River which is so named because it is located three miles downriver from Middletown, PA. It is a short distance from Harrisburg, the capital of PA. The accident began at 4:00 AM on March 28 with failures in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck-open pilot-operated relief valve in the primary system, which allowed large amounts of reactor coolant to escape. Radioactive water entered the Susquehanna River and steam poisoned the atmosphere. The reactor cooling system filled with hydrogen gas that created a bubble and people feared the reactor core would melt. We were listening intently to the radio in school throughout the day. By Friday Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburg had ordered all schools within a 10 mile radius to close and all pregnant women and preschool children to evacuate. My school is about 25 miles from TMI. People were urged to stay indoors and farmers were told to keep their cattle under cover and on stored feed. Topgovernment officials of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were rushed to the stricken area and all civil defense units were alerted for possible total evacuation of over one million people. That would be us!! By Saturday, the NCR was discussing a possible evacuation of those people who lived within the 25 mile radius of TMI. About a quarter of a million people had already voluntarily evacuated and many more prepared for the possible evacuation. We lived 22 miles from the accident and were very concerned. We had three young children (our oldest had celebrated his birthday March 28) and were ready to leave. Our luggage was packed and we were studying the maps to see where to go. We had no clue. On Sunday, April 1, President Jimmy Carter visited the crippled reactor site and assured all that everything was stable and that radiation levels were quite safe for all concerned. The amount of radiation released was about the amount that a normal person acquires from the atmosphere during a year. Even less than a chest X-ray. He really relieved the anxiety in our household. On Monday a press conference from TMI said that the Hydrogen bubble had shrunk drastically and the reactor temperature had dropped. By the end of the week things were returning to normal and the reactor had cooled and the clean-up was beginning. No one died in the accident, but people downwind of the accident site reported a spike in infant mortality two years after the incident. TMI paid out $82 million in claims because of the accident. Today the TMI #2 reactor is permanently shut down and defueled, but operations are still going on at TMI. Two weeks ago officials of the NRC announced that the Unit #2 will be used at Shearon Harris Nucleur Plant in New Hill, NC. We are waiting for the 670 ton unit to be moved. Not all was stressful because of the accident. Somethings that occurred: I was asked to write an article for the APBA (Board game produced in Lancaster) Journal detailing the event; Dan Aykroyd, playing President Carter in a Saturday Night Live skit, visited TMI and becomes exposed to large doses of radiation and turns into a giant; Dan Fogelberg, in his song "Face the Fire", refers to TMI with..."I hear the thunder three miles away, the island's leaking into the bay..."; In The Simpsons episode King-Size Homer, Homer is able to avert a nuclear meltdown; In the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, during a battle among Wolverine, Sabertooth and Deadpool, one of the cooling towers is destroyed; In Family Guy, Quagmire belonged to an improv group called "Three Smile Island; and the best.......Adam Bomb, WWE pro wrestler, was billed as hailing from Three Mile Island. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - Photos from top are map of the area, TMI with cooling towers, Jimmy Carter visiting TMI and time cover.