Three Mile Island 30th commemoration

On March 28, 1979, what Americans had been told by the nuclear industry could not occur happened; the meltdown of a nuclear power plant. The combination of mechanical failure and human error at the three month-old nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania caught the industry, its regulators, state officials and the surrounding public, completely by surprise. The unfolding drama over the next several days chronicled the uncertainty surrounding an inherently dangerous industry that today is only more radioactive with diminishing safety margins. Two days later, Walter Cronkite was in the anchor's chair at CBS Evening News. Watch the historic Cronkite broadcast here (part I) and here (part II). Also, listen to VOICES FROM THREE MILE ISLAND, from Turning Tide Productions here. VOICES FROM THREE MILE ISLAND is a re-broadcast of the two-hour radio program originally aired March 28, 1980 on the first anniversary of the accident. The program, broadcast on 65 public radio stations across the U.S., chronicles the personal experiences of Pennsylvania residents from communities around the stricken reactor. And see the original 1997 press release detailing the findings of the epidemiological study led by Dr. Steven Wing that found elevated rates of leukemia and lung cancer among populations living under the path of the radioactive plume released at the start of the Three Mile Island accident. Read the press release here.