The Warning: Accident at Three Mile IslandBy 6:00 a.m. on the morning of March 28, 1979, the reactor core at Three Mile Island was thirty minutes away from a meltdown, an apocalypse that would render a huge swath of eastern Pennsylvania permanently uninhabitable. The control room crew, overwhelmed by flashing alarms and klaxon horns, is at a loss. The memo that would have warned them was never sent. Originally published in 1982, this factual, riveting thriller was the first account of the accident based on exclusive interviews with key operating personnel. Mike Gray, author of The China Syndrome, and Ira Rosen, former producer for CBS's 60 Minutes, have updated this jackhammer narrative of mechanical failure and human error with an analysis of the current threats to our nuclear power plants. Today the nuclear option is again on the table. Before we head down that road, it's important to understand what went wrong that fateful morning when the future of Harrisburg hung by a thread. |
Contents
Section 1 | 15 |
Section 2 | 16 |
Section 3 | 19 |
Section 4 | 23 |
Section 5 | 33 |
Section 6 | 45 |
Section 7 | 55 |
Section 8 | 71 |
Section 12 | 121 |
Section 13 | 137 |
Section 14 | 157 |
Section 15 | 175 |
Section 16 | 199 |
Section 17 | 223 |
Section 18 | 233 |
Section 19 | 247 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accident alarm auxiliary building Babcock & Wilcox Bert Dunn Bethesda Bill Scranton block valve boilers boron bubble chairman China Syndrome commissioners console containment building control room coolant cooling core couple Creitz Creswell Critchlow Davis-Besse Edison emergency engineers evacuation everything Floyd Fouchard Frederick fuel Gary Miller Gilinsky going happened Harold Denton Harrisburg Hauser head headquarters heat hell hydrogen inside inspector Jack Herbein Jim Creswell Joe Hendrie Kelly Kunder leak look Lynchburg Mattson meltdown Michelson millirem minutes morning nuclear plants Nuclear Regulatory Commission numbers Okay operators panel Pennsylvania pipe pounds pressure problem pumps radiation radioactive reactor building reactor coolant reading release relief valve reporters running safety says Scranton shouts shut staff steam Stello talking tanks tell temperature There's thermocouples thing Thompson Thornburgh Three Mile Island tion Toledo trying turbine building turns Unit Velez water level what's