Three Mile Island 30th Anniversary 28th March 2009

Thirty years ago, Americans stood in shock watching unfold what had been officially deemed by federal officials as "incredible"—a major accident at a nuclear power reactor. Americans watched their fellow citizens flee their homes and businesses in panic, watched as regulators and utility employees tried to address the accident, watched and tried to understand why poisonous radiation was being released into the atmosphere when they had been told such an outcome was impossible. Thirty years after Three Mile Island, 35 years since the NRC was formed to break up the perceived nuclear industry influence of the Atomic Energy Commission, we find ourselves having come full circle. Like the AEC before it, the NRC has become the captive of the industry it was created to regulate. The system is broken, it must be repaired.

Daily Kos 26th March 2009 more >>

You can hear a great radio program (Voices from Three Mile Island) first aired on 65 public radio stations on TMI’s 1st anniversary, plus watch the original CBS News with Walter Cronkite reporting on the accident, and read March 24, 2009 Congressional testimony by Peter Bradford, who was an NRC Commissioner during TMI, here.

Nuclear Information and Resources Service 24th March 2009 more >>

See also: Three Mile Island Alert Website.

People died – and are still dying – at Three Mile Island. As the thirtieth anniversary approaches, we mourn the deaths that accompanied the biggest string of lies ever told in US industrial history. The public was assured there were no radiation releases. That quickly proved to be false. The public was then told the releases were controlled and done purposely to alleviate pressure on the core. Both those assertions were false. The public was told the releases were "insignificant." But stack monitors were saturated and unusable, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission later told Congress it did not know – and STILL does not know – how much radiation was released at Three Mile Island, or where it went. Investigations by epidemiologist Dr. Stephen Wing of the University of North Carolina, and others, led Wing to warn that the official studies on the health impacts of the accident suffered from “logical and methodological problems.” Studies by Wing and by Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear industry official, announced this week at Harrisburg, significantly challenge official pronouncements on both radiation releases and health impacts.

Counterpunch 24th Mar 2009 more >>