Thursday, March 11, 2004

It hits the fan, part 2

Less than a week after the phosphorus incident, on (Thursday) March 28 th , Three Mile Island reactor #2 suffered a partial meltdown. Most people outside of our area don’t realize exactly how close we came to losing half the state of Pennsylvania, most of Maryland, all of Delaware, probably the nation’s capital, New Jersey, and NYC. It was VERY close to being a Chernobyl.

Again, dad’s in Atlanta, Mom & I are in Gburg. In the general area of Harrisburg and by and large all of Pennsylvania, we were in a media blackout. Something was going on with TMI, but we didn’t know exactly what. We were assured by the Powers That Be that everything was under control and not to worry. Plant officials were still trying to figure out how to stabilize the reactor, but had given a “the danger is over” message to the local public.

Outside the area, however, they were being given details. Over the next few days (over the weekend) my father in Atlanta learned what they were not telling us: a large bubble of radioactive hydrogen steam had been building in the reaction chamber. Cronkite mentioned on national news that there was a very real possibility of a total meltdown.

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