March 28, 1979- Three Mile Island partial meltdown
In 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant partially melted down in the worst nuclear accident in United States history. The Nuclear Regulatory Commissionissued a report that revealed that TMI was within a half hour of an irreversible meltdown. The accident at TMI is still dismissed by the power industry and many in the Bush Administration as a minor incident that proves the safety of nuclear power since the safety measures prevented a full meltdown.
The truth is very different, however. as described in The China Syndrome. Ninety percent of the reactor core was damaged and 52% melted down, which is why the site is contaminated for up to tens of thousands of years.
U.S.istrict Judge Sylvia Rambo dismissed more than 2,000 damage claims saying there was not enough scientific proof. Rambo threw out alomst all of the scientific eveidence that was presented by the plaintiffs and then refused to consider the pending National Institutes of Health study of Dr. Steven Wing.
According to Wing, "The cancer findings, along with studies of animals, plants and chromosomal damage in Three Mile Island area residents, all point to much higher radiation levels than were previously reported. If you say that there was no high radiation, then you are left with higher cancer rates downwind of the plume that are otherwise unexplainable...Several hundred people at the time of the accident reported nausea, vomiting, hair loss and skin rashes, and a number said their pets died or had symptoms of radiation exposure. We figured that if that were possible, we ought to look at it again. After adjusting for pre-accident cancer incidence, we found a striking increase in cancers downwind from Three Mile Island."
According to Three Mile Island Alert, almost 30 years after the accident, "TMI Unit-2 periodically releases small amounts of radiation to the Susquehanna River. It is uncertain how much uranium and other radioisotopes remain inside."
for more information go to www.tmia.com
