Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective - Background and Introduction

Background and Introduction

The Three Mile Island power station is near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the United States. The accident described in Three Mile Island began on Wednesday, March 28, 1979, and ultimately resulted in a partial core meltdown in Unit 2 of the nuclear power plant. Unit 2's pressurized water reactor was of 900 MWe capacity. The scope and complexity of this reactor accident became clear over the course of five days, as a number of agencies at the local, state and federal levels tried to solve the problem and decide whether the ongoing accident required an emergency evacuation, and to what extent.

Walker's objective in Three Mile Island was to write a comprehensive history that would serve as an authoritative resource for both the interested public and the NRC. The book provides a detailed account of the causes of the accident and the response to it by the NRC, the state of Pennsylvania, and the White House.

The early chapters of Three Mile Island provide historical context for the accident, giving a brief overview of the government-supported growth of commercial nuclear power in the 1960s and 1970s. The emerging controversy during that period over the safety of nuclear power is also described. The public were concerned about the risk of nuclear accidents and about routine low-level releases of radioactivity.