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Subject: Who remembers the "Three Mile Island" accident?
I have a very dim memory of this incident happening. I did some online research and discovered that it happened in March of 1979. For some reason,I don't remember hearing my Sixth grade classmates talking about this until September of 1979. I also remember kids on the playground cracking jokes about the event,in the same vein as the "black" humored Challenger jokes. Sick jokes about radioactive clouds,people having their hair fall out,and mutated babies. Does anybody remember the "Three Mile Island" incident? ??? Thanks for the memories! Sincerely,Steve.
Subject: Re: Who remembers the "Three Mile Island" accident
I remember..I was 12 at the time and living in suburban Maryland, about 90 miles from Hampton Township, PA where the crisis was taking place.
We were gluded to the TV and listening to every report on the radio..
You have to remember that the movie "China Syndrome", was playing at the theaters. WAY too much irony in that..the movie by itself caused paranoia, but when 3 Mile Island hit, well, you can imagine..
Talk about panic, people were scrambling, wondering what they could do if they could do anything..people talking about "rads" and radiation counts. People were actually planning to leave or had already left the area for points south.
I lived between Baltimore and D.C., and both cities were on alert for tainted water supplies, radioactive gas in the air, etc.
There was talk about shutting down the schools until a assesment of radiation present in the local area was safe..
The news media was getting their facts screwed up and scaring us more than informing.
Completly nuts.. ::) actually watching the weather reports to see which way the winds would be blowing for fear of the radioactive gas would be blown our way.
It was really scary for us, mainly because no one, not even the "experts" really knew what was going on, what had happened or what was going to happen.
Subject: Re: Who remembers the "Three Mile Island" accident
I remember it. But everytime I hear about 3 Mile Island, I can't help but thinking of a Saturday Night Live skit called, "The Pepsie Syndrome". Another classic SNL skit. ;D
Cat
Subject: Re: Who remembers the "Three Mile Island" accident
Wow! It seems like it was more scary than I would have imagined,especially for people like you,Gumby,who were not too far from the real life scene. Your comments about the experts not knowing what was going on, and the radio announcers giving you speculation, reminds me of 911. I remember the announcers on that day saying that there might be more buildings being targeted by highjacked planes, as we speak! One even said the USA could be nuked by the end of the day. :o Of course,shortly after the Twin Towers fell,Bush "froze" all airports in America, and our military was on high alert. Yet,still I remember feeling very scared that day. I expected there to be military personnel, and crowds of people running around in a panic,on my way home from work. Just like the disaster movies! LOL! Anyway,I do have memories of the "Three Mile Island" incident,and the movie "China Syndrome" being in theaters at the same time. This was a frightening coincidence. Thanks for the memories! Sincerely,Steve.
Subject: Re: Who remembers the "Three Mile Island" accident
I remember when TMI was in the news. Fortunately, I was on the other side of the continent at the time!
http://www.tmia.com/
Subject: Re: Who remembers the "Three Mile Island" accident
Quoting:
I remember it. But everytime I hear about 3 Mile Island, I can't help but thinking of a Saturday Night Live skit called, "The Pepsie Syndrome". Another classic SNL skit. ;D
Cat
End Quote
Haw haw haw! The Pepsi Syndrome, I remember that skit. Funneee! :D The SNL skit in which Jimmy Carter goes to the nuke plant is also a scream.
I remember my dad talking about Three Mile Island, he was a staunch anti-nuker. One of the issues the crazy old bastid was right about. We lived in NH, and the Seabrook nuclear plant controversy raged throughout the '70s. The plant (which did go on line in the '80s) was being build at Seabrook, NH, on the coast. The anti-nuke group "The Clamshell Alliance" led the charge against it. There was no viable evacuation route, and the environmental impact would be severe if it melted down right there in spitting distance of the ocean. On top of the environmental problems, the project had been a bureaucratic and financial disaster. Our power company, Public Service New Hampshire, went bankrupt. When the plant went online, much of the power would be diverted to Massachusetts to pay off loans.
Three Mile Island gave the anti-Seabrookers a good thrashing stick for their cause. I didn't realize that Seabrook was so well known nation wide until I saw the move "Grosse Point Blank." The guy's ex-girlfriend had a Seabrook protest poster in her room.
Midnight Oil did a great song about the Three Mile Island accident. "Harrisburg" is on the "Red Sails in the Sunset Album." Some lyrics off the top of my head:
"The company said it wouldn't blow, the government said it might, Harrisburg, oh Harrisburg, I wonder who is right."
"It's stuff you cannot see or touch, it's stuff you cannot smell, it's stuff that's twenty times as hot as the hottest stuff in hell...And when the heat gets in, you cannot get it out."
"Harrisburg, oh Harrisburg, the plant is melting down, people out in Harrisburg are getting out of town..."
Three Mile Island was a firecracker compared to Chernobyl, and we should still consider ourselves lucky there haven't been more Chernobyls in the crumbling infrastructure of the fomer USSR. However, there's no need to look that far off. We've had some terrible close calls right here in the U.S.!
Subject: Re: Who remembers the "Three Mile Island" accident
Quoting:
Three Mile Island was a firecracker compared to Chernobyl, and we should still consider ourselves lucky there haven't been more Chernobyls in the crumbling infrastructure of the fomer USSR. However, there's no need to look that far off. We've had some terrible close calls right here in the U.S.!
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The scary part about this is the fact that many of these plants that were built in the 70s are still on-line and have many problems in terms of decaying buildings and such. 3 Mile Island is STILL operational. We drive by there a few times a year on our way to D.C. and see that plume rising up and I can't help wondering how much radation is leaking. I also used to live close to Vermont Yankee. They would have a map of the area that would be effective if there was a nuclear meltdown. My house was included in that area. I no longer live in that area but still, it is really too close for comfort. We joke about the area around VY where the fish has three eyes. Personally, I think they all should be shut down and we should go with more natural sources of energy-solar, wind, and even hydro.
Cat
Subject: Re: Who remembers the "Three Mile Island" accident
I live about an hour from the plant, so you know I remember it. Actually the cancer rate rate did rise in the surrounding areas in the years following the accident.
Subject: Re: Who remembers the "Three Mile Island" accident
Quoting:I also used to live close to Vermont Yankee. They would have a map of the area that would be effective if there was a nuclear meltdown. My house was included in that area. I no longer live in that area but still, it is really too close for comfort. We joke about the area around VY where the fish has three eyes. Personally, I think they all should be shut down and we should go with more natural sources of energy-solar, wind, and even hydro. End Quote
We hated the Yankees! Not the Yankees New Englanders usually hate, but Vermont Yankee and Maine Yankee!
"Electricity too cheap to meter" was the promise of the nuke industry in the '50s and '60s. Were they lying or just wrong? These plants would have 30 year life expectancy at the end of which we would have a junk heap that would be deadly radioactive FOREVER. In 1955, 1985 seemed a long way off and the nukers figured, "technology will bail us out." It didn't.
"Nuclear energy burns clean!, they declared. Yeah, unless something f**ks up, then you get an area uninhabitable for 25,000 years.
On the otherhand, you don't need a nuke accident to get your three-eyed fish. Love Canal, anybody?
Cat
End Quote
Subject: Re: Who remembers the
We in Southern New Jersey have Salem I and II nuke plants and the one at Oyster Creek in Ocean County! And the Oyster Creek plant has been around since before I was born! Salem I,Salem II,and Oyster Creek have had their share of operational problems and shutdowns in the past. It freaks me out that New Jersey has 3 NUKE plants in such a tiny State!My area would be in deep $%#@ if any of the three failed!!
Subject: Re: Who remembers the
Quoting:
We in Southern New Jersey have Salem I and II nuke plants and the one at Oyster Creek in Ocean County! And the Oyster Creek plant has been around since before I was born! Salem I,Salem II,and Oyster Creek have had their share of operational problems and shutdowns in the past. It freaks me out that New Jersey has 3 NUKE plants in such a tiny State!My area would be in deep $%#@ if any of the three failed!!End Quote
Jersey a "tiny" state? Maybe if you're from Montana or Texas. We New England is the tiny state region. We go to another state like Texans go to another county. As my Hank Hill clone Texan friend once said, "What's this about people going to other states all the time up here?" I could leave my house right now and hit Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire inside of two hours! Down your way, there's Delaware, another tiny state. More to it than Wilmington, but not much.
Anyway...isn't the environment of NE New Jersey totally $%#@ed already? I heard when I was growing up that the peels off your car in Bayonne within a couple of years. Maybe that was just an urban myth.
Subject: Re: Who remembers the
Quoting:
Jersey a "tiny" state? Maybe if you're from Montana or Texas. We New England is the tiny state region. We go to another state like Texans go to another county. As my Hank Hill clone Texan friend once said, "What's this about people going to other states all the time up here?" I could leave my house right now and hit Connecticut, Vermont, and New Hampshire inside of two hours! Down your way, there's Delaware, another tiny state. More to it than Wilmington, but not much.
Anyway...isn't the environment of NE New Jersey totally $%#@ed already? I heard when I was growing up that the peels off your car in Bayonne within a couple of years. Maybe that was just an urban myth.
End Quote
Here in South Jersey,they are more environmentally friendly,we have lots of historical sites and a couple of very nice State parks(Atsion and Bass River in Burlington County,Fort Mott in Gloucester County,and Belleplain in Cape May County).There are also county parks in Estelle Manor(Atlantic County)and Cape May Court House(Cape May County),both of which are top notch facilities. The Cape May County Zoo-supported by DONATIONS-is a zoo that is committed to preserving the various wild animals in this State. They even have a reptile house that houses endangered snakes such as the Timber Rattler and the Black Rat Snake. And much of my area is farmland-by the way NJ is famous for Jersey tomatoes and Jersey sweet corn!!