The "Radioactive Birthday Party" Story

It was an ordinary day. Carol and I are taking a walk through Overlook Park which is adjacent to our neighborhood. Great walking trails with plenty of wildlife to observe on our walk. As usual, we talk about almost anything that comes to mind. She was telling me about a couple that were living next to her boss who were having a bad time. Seems that the wife had died from cancer as well as one of their children and now the husband has been diagnosed with cancer. Wow, talk about bad luck. Carol told me that she asked her boss if the couple had been living near Three Mile Island (TMI) at the time when they had the nuclear reactor accident in 1979. Her boss had no idea, since he had just moved to the area a few months ago. I have written about TMI in a few other posts, but just to refresh your memory: On Tuesday, March 29, 1979 at 4 AM, EST, the #2 reactor suffered a nuclear meltdown. It was the worst accident in US commercial nuclear power plant history and resulted in the release of small amounts of radioactive gases and radioactive iodine into the environment. 28 hours after the accident Lieutenant Governor William Scranton III held a press conference saying that all schools within a 5-mile radius of the plant would be closed, residents were to stay indoors and farmers should keep their animals under cover and feed them stored feed. Then, on Friday, Governor Richard Thornburgh said that the area had been extended to a 20-mile radius. Wow, we were right on the border line. Pretty scary. But, my story goes beyond that. Seems that our oldest child's 8th birthday was on March 28. Something to help him remember his birthday in the future. But, we had scheduled a birthday party with eight to ten of his friends from Schaeffer Elementary School on the Saturday after the accident at TMI. What should we do. Everyone was extremely concerned, but we made calls to the parents telling them we would still have the party and if they felt their child should not attend, we would understand. All showed up and we kept them inside at 925 Janet Ave. At least for an hour or so, then, since they were all young boys, we felt a great need to get them outside so they could work off some of their energy. What to do! One of the boys' father was a doctor at the Lancaster General Hospital. A radiologist matter of fact. So we called the hospital and asked to talk to him. Asked if he felt it would be safe for the boys to go outdoors. He said that they had a meter on the roof of the hospital that measures radioactivity and they had checked it about an hour ago and it did not register anything out of the ordinary. He felt it was perfectly safe for the boys to be outside. He also was sympathetic about our need to be outside. Well, the party was a success and everyone made it home safely. But, we still wonder, after all these years, about the amount of radioactive gases that were released into the air, especially around the TMI plant. We have heard about many cases such as the one my wife told me about during our walk and still believe that it may have been caused by the accident. I guess we will never know. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.