People Died at Three Mile Island
People died---and are still dying---at Three Mile Island.
As the thirtieth anniversary of America's most infamous industrial accident approaches, we mourn the deaths that accompanied the biggest string of lies ever told in US industrial history.
As news of the accident poured into the global media, the public was assured there were no radiation releases.
That quickly proved to be false.
The public was then told the releases were controlled and done purposely to alleviate pressure on the core.
Both those assertions were false.
The public was told the releases were "insignificant."
But stack monitors were saturated and unusable, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission later told Congress it did not know---and STILL does not know---how much radiation was released at Three Mile Island, or where it went.
Using unsubstantiated estimates of how much radiation was released, the government issued average doses allegedly received by people in the region, which it assured the public were safe. But the estimates were utterly meaningless, among other things ignoring the likelihood that high doses of concentrated fallout could come down heavily on specific areas.
Official estimates said a uniform dose to all persons in the region was equivalent to a single chest x-ray. But pregnant women are no longer x-rayed because it has long been known a single dose can do catastrophic damage to an embryo or fetus in utero.
The public was told there was no melting of fuel inside the core.
But robotic cameras later showed a very substantial portion of the fuel did melt.
The public was told there was no danger of an explosion.
But there was, as there had been at Michigan's Fermi reactor in 1966. In 1986, Chernobyl Unit Four did explode.
The public was told there was no need to evacuate anyone from the area.
But Pennsylvania Governor Richard Thornburgh then evacuated pregnant women and small children. Unfortunately, many were sent to nearby Hershey, which was showered with fallout.
In fact, the entire region should have been immediately evacuated. It is standard wisdom in the health physics community that---due in part to the extreme vulnerability of human embryos, fetuses and small children, as well as the weaknesses of old age---there is no safe dose of radiation, and none will ever be found.
The public was assured the government would follow up with meticulous studies of the health impacts of the accident.
In fact, the state of Pennsylvania hid the health impacts, including deletion of cancers from the public record, abolition of the state's tumor registry, misrepresentation of the impacts it could not hide (including an apparent tripling of the infant death rate in nearby Harrisburg) and much more.
The federal government did nothing to track the health histories of the region's residents.
In fact, the most reliable studies were conducted by local residents like Jane Lee and Mary Osborne, who went door-to-door in neighborhoods where the fallout was thought to be worst. Their surveys showed very substantial plagues of cancer, leukemia, birth defects, respiratory problems, hair loss, rashes, lesions and much more.
A study by Columbia University claimed there were no significant health impacts, but its data by some interpretations points in the opposite direction. Investigations by epidemiologist Dr. Stephen Wing of the University of North Carolina, and others, led Wing to warn that the official studies on the health impacts of the accident suffered from "logical and methodological problems." Studies by Wing and by Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear industry official, being announced this week at Harrisburg, significantly challenge official pronouncements on both radiation releases and health impacts.
Gundersen, a leading technical expert on nuclear engineering, says: "When I correctly interpreted the containment pressure spike and the doses measured in the environment after the TMI accident, I proved that TMI's releases were about one hundred times higher than the industry and the NRC claim, in part because the containment leaked. This new data supports the epidemiology of Dr. Steve Wing and proves that there really were injuries from the accident. New reactor designs are also effected, as the NRC is using its low assumed release rates to justify decreases in emergency planning and containment design."
Data unearthed by radiologist Dr. Ernest Sternglass of the University of Pittsburgh, and statisticians Jay Gould (now deceased) and Joe Mangano of New York have led to strong assertions of major public health impacts. On-going work by Sternglass and Mangano clearly indicates that "normal" reactor radiation releases of far less magnitude that those at TMI continue to have catastrophic impacts on local populations.
Anecdotal evidence among the local human population has been devastating. Large numbers of central Pennsylvanians suffered skin sores and lesions that erupted while they were out of doors as the fallout rained down on them. Many quickly developed large, visible tumors, breathing problems, and a metallic taste in their mouths that matched that experienced by some of the men who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, and who were exposed to nuclear tests in the south Pacific and Nevada.
A series of interviews conducted by Robbie Leppzer and compiled in a "a two-hour public radio documentary VOICES FROM THREE MILE ISLAND ( www.turningtide.com ) give some indication of the horrors experienced by the people of central Pennsylvania.
They are further underscored by harrowing broadcasts from then-CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-c1PrCLaRw) warning that "the world has never known a day quite like today. It faced the considerable uncertainties and dangers of the worst nuclear power plant accident of the atomic age. And the horror tonight is that it could get much worse."
In March of 1980, I went into the region and compiled a range of interviews clearly indicating widespread health damage done by radiation from the accident. The survey led to the book KILLING OUR OWN, co-authored with Norman Solomon, Robert Alvarez and Eleanor Walters ( www.ratical.org/radiation/KillingOurOwn/KOO.pdf ) which correlated the damage done at TMI with that suffered during nuclear bomb tests, atomic weapons production, mis-use of medical x-rays, the painting of radium watch dials, uranium mining and milling, radioactive fuel production, failed attempts at waste disposal, and more.
My research at TMI also uncovered a plague of death and disease among the area's wild animals and farm livestock. Entire bee hives expired immediately after the accident, along with a disappearance of birds, many of whom were found scattered dead on the ground. A rash of malformed pets were born and stillborn, including kittens that could not walk and a dog with no eyes. Reproductive rates among the region's cows and horses plummeted.
Much of this was documented by a three-person investigative team from the Baltimore News-American, which made it clear that the problems could only have been caused by radiation. Statistics from Pennsylvania's Department of Agriculture confirmed the plague, but the state denied its existence, and said that if it did exist, it could not have been caused by TMI.
In the mid-1980s the citizens of the three counties surrounding Three Mile Island voted by a margin of 3:1 to permanently retired TMI Unit One, which had been shut when Unit Two melted. The Reagan Administration trashed the vote and re-opened the reactor, which still operates. Its owners now seek a license renewal.
Some 2400 area residents have long-since filed a class action lawsuit demanding compensation for the plague of death and disease visited upon their families. In the past quarter-century they have been denied access to the federal court system, which claims there was not enough radiation released to do such harm. TMI's owners did quietly pay out millions in damages to area residents whose children were born with genetic damage, among other things. The payments came in exchange for silence among those receiving them.
But for all the global attention focused on the accident and its health effects, there has never been a binding public trial to test the assertion by thousands of conservative central Pennsylvanians that radiation from TMI destroyed their lives.
So while the nuclear power industry continues to assert that "no one died at Three Mile Island," it refuses to allow an open judicial hearing on the hundreds of cases still pending.
As the pushers of the "nuclear renaissance" demand massive tax- and rate-payer subsidies to build yet another generation of reactors, they cynically stonewall the obvious death toll that continues to mount at the site of an accident that happened thirty years ago. The "see no evil" mantra continues to define all official approaches to the victims of this horrific disaster.
Ironically, like Chernobyl, Three Mile Island Unit Two was a state-of-the-art reactor. Its official opening came on December 28, 1978, and it melted exactly three months later. Had it operated longer, the accumulated radiation spewing from its core almost certainly would have been far greater.
Every reactor now operating in the US is much older---nearly all fully three decades older---than TMI-2 when it melted. Their potential fallout that could dwarf what came down in 1979.
But the Big Lie remains officially in tact. Expect to hear all week that TMI was "a success story" because "no one was killed."
But in mere moments that brand new reactor morphed from a $900 million asset to a multi-billion-dollar liability. It could happen to any atomic power plant, now, tomorrow and into the future.
Meanwhile, the death toll from America's worst industrial catastrophe continues to rise. More than ever, it is shrouded in official lies and desecrated by a reactor-pushing "renaissance" hell-bent on repeating the nightmare on an even larger scale.
--
Harvey Wasserman has been writing about atomic energy and the green alternatives since 1973. His 1982 assertion to Bryant Gumbel on NBC's TODAY Show that people were killed at TMI sparked a national mailing from the reactor industry demanding a retraction. NBC was later bought by General Electric, still a major force pushing atomic power. This article originally appeared at http://freepress.org.
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the goal is energy independence and you cannot have that with nuclear power. to achieve energy independence you need decentralization of energy. you need to become independent of corporate/government control of energy and nuclear power is their means of control. go alternative energy and smaller power grids controlled by communities and not the state. and you gotta do it before 2012 when sunspot activity will be at its peak causing havoc on our technology.
Harvey, are you familiar with the work of Tesla? Why can't we implement and explore the unfinished work of Nikola Tesla (Free energy for everyone, generated through the ground, via the Earth's natural and unlimited electromagnetic field).? He was almost complete when the powers that be shut down Wardenclyffe so they could put a meter on electricity. I'm not an expert, just curious about this.
Thank you all for these comments. The Soviet-style cover-up of the death toll at TMI continues to be a horrific warning sign that nuclear power and democracy cannot co-exist. We MUST move to a green-powered Earth as quickly as possible, and the failed experiment with atomic energy is the most signficant barrier. We must prevent any new reactors from being built and shut the existing ones as quickly as possible. Please see me at Solartopia.org and NukeFree.org. No Nukes/for Solartopia. HarveyW
http://www.threadbombing.com/data/media/54/facepalm2.jpg
You and people like you are responsible for sending $700B per year to our enemies.
Google Three Mile Island ... it's worse than it sounds.
A few links to additional information ...
http://www.greens.org/s-r/10/10-05.html
http://www.mothersalert.org/bertell.html
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/RBanNun.html
http://www.radiation.org/press/tmi1105.html
http://www.tmia.com/node/101
http://www.huntingtonnews.net/columns/090323-laforge-columnsthreemileisland.html
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/KillingOurOwn/KOO14.html
http://www.boisestate.edu/history/ncasner/hy210/3mile.htm
http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/article/id2165/pg1/index.html
Our leaders don't protect us, they lie to us to protect themselves.
Really harry.......when will people wake UP? I had a friend who lived near TMI and when I expressed concern about what had happened and the possible dangers, she looked at me with such disdain and anger. People in denial are people in denial. This is just the way it is I guess.
I recall that in the heyday of nuclear power, one desperate plan called for disposing of the rapidly accumulating stores of spent (but still highly radioactive for 1000's of years) nuclear fuel into space. That problem still exists.
McCain talked about how his inspiration for calling for a return to nuclear was the success of the nuclear Navy. However the amounts of spent fuel the Navy generates is vastly less than that of nuclear power plants providing domestic electricity. And the military has ways of disposing of such material that bypass restrictions that domestic power plants would have to be subject to.
Back in the 1970's and 1980's, when most nuclear power plants were built, nobody could have imagined terrorism on the relatively developed scale in which it exists today. I fear nuclear power plants would prove an irresistible target for mayhem and destruction that would make 9-11 look like the good old days.
This would never happen with solar and wind energy.
PS: I read in a book called "Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong" that the largest single expulsion of radiation in US history took place in Colorado (if I remember right) in 1978. Considering that one and TMI, how can anyone truly push nuclear power.
Here in Fl we have no say in Progress Energy adding another nuclear n power plant. Our bills are increasing, Jan alone 27%!!! (our PSC - Public [Corporate] Service Commission did reduce it to 10% but they will get the remainder of the increase and more the end of the year!!!) Yes, there were numerous protests, the cost and yes, I am not comfortable with that beast anywhere, and mostly I don't trust Progress Energy nor FL govt. Why should WE citizens pay for something which I do not own??? I do not receive dividend checks as owner, so why should I pay for the beast!!!
Another alarming story of nuclear contamination can be found by googling "Der spiegel nuclear steel."
In February of this year, the German publication Der Spiegel reported that there have been numerous instances of dangerously radioactive steel found in Germany. Most of it has reportedly been traced back to India. While it is not known precisely how the imported steel became dangerously radioactive, one theory is that someone in India has been disposing of radioactive waste by dumping it into melting steel.
One can only hope that the American authorities are being as diligent at checking imported products for radiation as those darned "socialists" in Germany.
It can be argued that the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history happened in northern Los Angeles County, not at TMI. Google Rocketdyne, nuclear accident, santa susanna.
Apparently research reactors in the 50s and 60s were not required to be enclosed in a safety container, the way the one at TMI was. There were numerous nuclear accidents at the Rocketdyne Santa Susanna facility, which reportedly released radiation into the ground water and into the atmosphere. According to government investigations (search google), as many as 3,000 people suffered premature deaths due to radiation, in Los Angeles County, because of the nuclear accidents at Rocketdyne.
Unlike the incident at TMI, the government never warned the public around the Santa Susanna research reactors about the reactor meltdowns and the radiation leaks. A grad student doing research work was accidentally given the info about the problems at the facility due to a freedom of information request. So, how many other nuclear accidents have there been in the U.S., which are still covered up? How can we have an intelligent and honest debate about nuclear energy when our government is not honest and forthcoming with us?
Anybody who denies that nuclear power will be a significant part of any future energy policy is not very serious.
We're gonna do our best to stop every last one of them. No tee vee set or any other electrically powered device is worth the life and health of the innocent people who live where nuclear plants get sited.
Nuclear power is suicide.
I'm with you Mary.
there are no innocent humans.
"Serious?"
People who oppose nuclear power are dead serious.
It's disappointing when people try to shut down debate with ad hominem smears like this. Dismissing an argument as "not serious" is an excellent way to exclude that argument from any debate. That way, real debate never happens, because certain positions (the "unserious" ones) are never heard.
OK, I will agree to a new one built next door to you.
The nukes industry has done their best to suppresses any evidence of deaths.
doubt it? Billions of dollars at stake, get real.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident#Health_effects_and_epidemiology.
"Holders of the dissenting view note that hundreds of out-of-court settlements have been reached with alleged victims. However, a class action lawsuit alleging that the accident caused detrimental health effects was rejected by Harrisburg U.S. District Court Judge Sylvia Rambo. The appeal of the decision in front of U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals also failed.[36]"
Radiation poisoning like this is the perfect crimes. The effects don't even happen for 20 years, long after the statute of limitations, and it's masked and indistinguishable from natural cancer.
Indistinguishable, except for the epidemiology and demographics. Killers.
The same site reports "A 1997 study by Steven Wing of the University of North Carolina found cancer rates raised within a 10-mile radius two years after the accident by 0.034% +/- 0.013%, 0.103% +/- 0.035%, and 0.139% +/- 0.073% for all cancer, lung cancer, and leukemia, respectively, without considering the effects of stress or improved screening." A 0.034% rise is 3 more cancer cases in 100,000 people. Statistically insignificant in a county with known naturally radon (a cancer causing gas).
EVERY cancer case in the US is tracked on a national database. That is how "cancer clusters" are found. Data has not been lost or deleted from public record as this author claims. The data is there but does not support his claim.
If you don't have one of these death machines in your back yard you are as responsible for all the suffering they have caused and will continue to cause to the people who do when you support something that you know can't hurt you because of the convenience of distance you and others enjoy.
The theoretical data, if you believe the poorly measure radiation release reports would be 2 excess deaths for the surrounding area.
Thus you can kill a "statistically insignificant" number of people with impunity.
"within a 10-mile radius"
Since the prevailing wind only blows in one direction the affected area is a small slice out of that 10-mile radius. The vast majority of the area being unaffected and serving to reduce the percentage to a small fraction of the appropriate number.
And nearby Hershey which experienced fallout, is where that chocolate is made...nice, huh?
Mr. Wasserman,
Can you please provide a link or reference to scientific data and studies tht can support your claims to stated in the article?
What Konst said.
http://www.greens.org/s-r/10/10-05.html
http://www.mothersalert.org/bertell.html
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/RBanNun.html
http://www.radiation.org/press/tmi1105.html
http://www.tmia.com/node/101
http://www.huntingtonnews.net/columns/090323-laforge-columnsthreemileisland.html
http://www.ratical.org/radiation/KillingOurOwn/KOO14.html
http://www.boisestate.edu/history/ncasner/hy210/3mile.htm
http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/article/id2165/pg1/index.html
REAL scientific studies.
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