The front page from the Sunbury Daily Item of 40 years ago today describing events related to the partial melt down of the nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island.
The nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, near Middletown, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, occurred on 28 March 1979. According to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission:
The Three Mile Island Unit 2 reactor, near Middletown, Pennsylvania, partially melted down on 28 March 1979. This was the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history, although its small radioactive releases had no detectable health effects on plant workers or the public. Its aftermath brought about sweeping changes involving emergency response planning, reactor operator training, human factors engineering, radiation protection, and many other areas of nuclear power plant operations. It also caused the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to tighten and heighten its regulatory oversight. All of these changes significantly enhanced U.S. reactor safety.
A combination of equipment malfunctions, design-related problems and worker errors led to TMI-2’s partial meltdown and very small off-site releases of radioactivity.
Naturally, the partial melt-down and release of radioactive material caused great concern in all of Dauphin County, as well as in the region. Many residents evacuated areas near the plant and went to stay with relatives and friends in the Lykens Valley, about 28 miles away. The crisis lasted more than two weeks. In the end, the Unit 2 reactor could not be saved and had to be de-commissioned through a process that took nearly 15 years.
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Front page from Newspapers.com.
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