The American Spectator : Living With Three Mile Island

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Living With Three Mile Island

By Jeffrey Lord on 3.22.11 @ 6:08AM

Everyday life with an infamous symbol, as Obama sends nuclear carrier Reagan to Japan.

Three Mile Island and the USS Ronald Reagan.

Both in the news because of Japan. What is not in the news is that President Obama has sent a floating nuclear power plant into an abundantly active earthquake/tsunami zone of the Pacific to aid victims in an area where a nuclear power plant had a tsunami-induced explosion. And no one -- no one -- has so much as murmured at the irony. Much less demanded the Reagan be withdrawn -- or scrapped.

But first -- let's get close to home. As a matter of fact, let's get literally home to my own home. And to the then-Governor of Pennsylvania whose wisdom and common sense helped Central Pennsylvanians get through the world's first quite dramatic nuclear power plant crisis.

You can see it, of course. Right today.

Cross the bridge… .there it is downriver a handful of miles. Ten maybe, if that.

Go to the drug store? See the tell-tale cooling tower plumes out there from the top of the hill. Go to the grocery store? Ditto. Go pay the heat bill? Ditto. Go to this or that local destination for task A, B, or C and ditto, ditto and ditto again. Any view south down the river and its impossible to miss.

Flying in or out of town? The Harrisburg International Airport is adjacent to the Susquehanna River. Alongside the runways, just out several hundred feet from shore, sits the island "three miles" from nearby Middletown. From above as one arrives or departs it's like looking at a collection of very big vertical cannons. Close up.

"It" of course is what was, until the last couple of weeks, the most infamous -- and still very much working -- nuclear power plant in the world.

Three Mile Island. The nuclear power plant that scared the world to death. The concrete embodiment of what drives every environmentalist absolutely stir crazy. The incident that helped propel the movie The China Syndrome -- playing in Harrisburg area theaters that very week in March of 1979 -- to a smashing box office success for stars Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas and Jack Lemmon.

Yet international symbol that it may be, if you live here -- as I do -- it's nothing more sinister today than a part of the region's architectural furniture. More famous than the Irish green state capitol dome, perhaps, but decidedly more benign in terms of everyday life. Considering the frequent antics that have taken place under the green dome by this or that state legislator or the legislature as a whole over the decades since that March of 1979 and there are moments when Three Mile Island seems downright cuddly. After all, other than that one…ahhhh…hiccup that got some attention…OK…lots and lots of attention….this quite visible, still-operating nuclear power plant has never been indicted, raised its own pay in the middle of the night or used state funds to pay for political campaigns.

One jests, but of course, there's nothing funny about what's happening in Japan with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Radiation has escaped, and the danger of a meltdown is bannered with every news bulletin.

But the mere fact that life goes on in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and environs 32 years later -- no one has died from TMI, babies have been born and grown up and had their own healthy babies, the region has grown and prospered -- is something to reflect on amid all the panic over Japan both in Japan and elsewhere around the globe.

And some of this reaction inside and outside Japan is panic, too. Understandable yet… extremely unnecessary. No less than the estimable Charles Krauthammer has proclaimed "nuclear energy is dead. " Krauthammer is a considerably thoughtful man, but his response here shows a startling lack of imagination in the future of nuclear technology (see this piece yesterday by William Tucker right here at The American Spectator; also, check out Bill's appearance on Charlie Rose last week, on the subject of nuclear safety). As someone who lives every moment of the day with Three Mile Island as a responsible and good neighbor, one hopes Krauthammer is wrong. The idea of the "death" of nuclear power is utterly foolish, presuming nuclear technology never changes, never moves forward -- and ignoring a hard fact of the current crisis.

Not to put too fine a point on this, but what has President Obama done to assist the Japanese in their hour of peril? Why, he sent an aircraft carrier -- the USS Ronald Reagan -- to lend a hand. That would be the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Reagan. So in other words, racing to the aid of a country stricken by an earthquake-generated tsunami that has literally roiled the Pacific Ocean and upended all manner of sturdy ships -- we have fearlessly sent into this seagoing turmoil a floating nuclear power plant. And nobody -- nobody -- has blinked.

AS WELL THEY SHOULDN'T. The Reagan and its nuclear sister ships are common and eminently safe. There is actually someone who has a considerable bit of wisdom on the subject of handling a problem like that of Fukushima Daiichi, and he should be swamped with media requests right about now.

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About the Author

Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (59) | Leave a comment

Dee See| 3.22.11 @ 6:47AM

WHY waste our time with such secondary,
resignation engendering items as this?

AS the Japanese catastrophe is being airbrushed
and 'managed' with disinfo, no info, and distractions ---WHY'S no one nailing our 'fave'
INTER-national corporate GE/Westinghouse cabal for their design flaws and plant placements?

Remember, GE and Westinghouse were there
bolstering the Bolsheviks, Stalin, the Nazis, and
more recently MAO and his still ruling minnions.

Jeff I-Melt-down is even now taking in Brazil
with the First Family while Japan burns and
fallout particles disperse across North America
along with the usual Barium/Cadmium CHEM-trails.

American Spectators one and all should be
getting off their butts, putting on their
spectacles and grabbing their harpoons of
righteous indignation.

Alan Brooks| 3.22.11 @ 8:05AM

"...as Obama sends nuclear carrier Reagan to Japan."

He didn't send the SS Jimmuh Cawtah, because that we would be a sign we should surrender to our enemies.

JRGIERLACH| 3.22.11 @ 12:44PM

The Carter, if memory proves correct, is an Attack Sub, Los Angeles class (Navy Bretheren help out, please.) As such, she could only help the Japanese if they were being attacked by a carrier task force, like the Reagan's. While amusing to suppose, I doubt that any US Navy ship will surrender...

Alan Brooks| 3.22.11 @ 4:19PM

If we send the SS William Henry Harrison to Japan, it will only be berthed there for a month.

If we send the SS Richard Nixon, the captain will resign.

Hillel| 3.22.11 @ 7:32AM

As I was an adult at the time,I could follow 3 Mile and I knew that the containment structure,well,contained most of the problem. An amusing asside is that Jane Fonda condemed 3mile but refused to say anything about the uncontained Soviet reacters. NEVERTHELESS,even now media is still conteming 3mile. TRUTH HAS NOT COME WON OUT that's why it's hard to see a future in Atomic.

MoeBlotz| 3.22.11 @ 7:52AM

Chernobyl is in Ukraine,and the USSR was responsible for the nuclear power plant there. Did the USSR carry on? One big change in the food supply after the nuclear accident in Ukraine is that Chicken Kiev now glows in the dark.

Ken (Old Texican)| 3.22.11 @ 8:10AM

Mr. Lord,
Thank you. That was the best summation anywhere to date.

Occam's Tool| 3.22.11 @ 6:37PM

You know, a huge tsunammi hits, the power goes out, water covers evrything, and containment is holding. Not bad. Imagine how it would do in, say, Minnesota or New Mexico?

joedoc| 3.22.11 @ 9:54AM

Mr. Lord has hit the nail on the head. Life goes on. I wish people would understand that accidents do happen. If we are responsible adults we deal with them. If we lived paralyzed in fear about everything that could go wrong, we aren't living at all.

1389AD| 3.23.11 @ 3:14AM

Then as now, the main problem is the plethora of panic-peddlers who follow in the footsteps of the execrable Walter Cronkite. Why people ever took that clown seriously is completely beyond me.

John Navratil| 3.22.11 @ 9:56AM

Mr. Lord,

Excellent! Panic never solved a problem and it won't here.

Mark Shepler| 3.22.11 @ 10:52AM

You know, I found a similar story very interesting a couple of years ago. It was astonishing reports how the crater at Bikini Atoll left by the Castle Bravo test, a 15 megaton hydrogen blast on 3/1/54 and the largest ever there, was full of thriving coral reefs and other sea life. Of course, the most startling and unremarked aspect was that divers went down into it. Not robot subs...human divers. In the water, down in the one mile by 240 foot deep hole left by the largest thermonuclear blast ever conducted by the US above ground a scant 74 years before. Errr, so I guess it's not a hyper-radioactive, glowing, toxic moonscape for the next 1000 years, huh? You can read about it here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24.....vironment/

(Warning: It is a MSNBC story so they do try to put the best face on it by pointing out how some species are "locally extinct" and how the crater's resurgence is really evidence of something or other to do with combating "climate change".)

When I was little, Rachel Carson got the whole environmental end-times chicken little hysterics going with her now largely debunked Silent Spring. Her successful banishment of DDT based on very little science and lots of the vapors is largely responsible for the deaths of perhaps hundreds of millions of poor, third world people from malaria. But hey, it's OK because the ban on DDT is one of those non-negotiable, first principles of American liberals feeling good about themselves. In my lifetime since the early 70's I can recall these episodes in the news, all of which turned out to be fraudulent, over-hyped or greatly exaggerated. I think it's also important to remember the parallel medical scares since then too because they go hand in glove and contain the same luddite message- Science and progress are our enemy. They are in no particular order:

Globing cooling, TMI, Dioxin/Times Beach, Saccharin, Love Canal, "Toxic waste sites/SuperFund", Sodium/Salt, PCBs, the ozone "hole", acid rain, Alar, Freon, Asbestos, high tension electrical lines, irradiation, genetic engineering, Global warming and now, the Grand Unified Field Theory of Environmental End Times- Climate Change. I'm sure I've missed a few, it's hard to keep track.

By the TMI episode the New Ice Age, predicted several years before, hadn't kicked in yet and in about the same period it turned out after months of fear-mongering that those cancerous mice had really been given the equivalent of a few dump trucks full of saccharin so I was already a little skeptical of the latest chicken-littles. Besides, even the common sense of an 18 year old dude told me that if it was really, really, truly dangerous on anything like a Hiroshima scale the whole region would've been evacuated. Instead, they ranted on about raised temps and short lived steam clouds. China Syndrome? Didn't the very events at TMI disprove that? Nor did it sound anything like the civic newsreels of nuclear holocaust we saw in grade school and so it wasn't, as it turned out in short order.

By the Times Beach panic in 1982, I was jaded but got a little snookered again. Who didn't? It's an episode largely forgotten in the glorious environmental lore and you never hear them cite their victory there. I wonder why? It has it all- a near alien stuff so terrible that it was deadly in any quantity above 1 part per billion but, gasp, there it was "100 times" over limit. Golly! Thhhaatt, thhhaaaat means...100 parts per BILLION!! A veritable blockbuster production ensued- Palpable hysteria, grave, reassuring public officials, earnest environmental "activists", 60-point headlines, men in space suits making Darth Vader sounds and entering the town with futuristic gizmos in hand, helicopter borne camera shots to accentuate the danger, breathless talk of the most dangerous substance known to man and brought forth by his own heedless arrogance, frantic "witch hunts" for other depots of the killer molecules, evacuations, a whole town demolished and burned and then...nothing. The whole supposed catastrophe quietly faded, then morphed into the toxic waste/SuperFund boondoggle and finally petered out after a few years to buried anonymously in a unmarked grave somewhere. If you google Times Beach there's not much on it relative to its newsworthiness at the time and even Wikipedia is ambivalent on the subject. Oh well, just another past good crisis gone down the memory hole.

Along the way and after Times Beach came most of the other scares that all proved yet more excuses for gov't activism, regulation, economic intervention and control, restrictions of property rights and personal liberties and any other power they could wring out of them before they too proved phony. Nowadays, I take it as read that the proof of something's harmlessness or benignity is in direct proportion to an "environmentalist's" or politician's hysteria about it.

Fear not though for there is nothing so timeless and indestructible as the certainty of our chicken littles that the end is nigh. Though they may not learn the proper lessons from their past hysterics, the rest of us do. Just ask the good citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

John Navratil| 3.22.11 @ 11:16AM

Cue the soundtrack. It's time for THIRD HAND SMOKE! AAAIIIIEEEEEEEEE!

Frisbee| 3.22.11 @ 8:33PM

Mark: you would really like Ann Coulter's piece last week on radiation being good for you.
www.anncoulter.com

Mike Hawk| 3.22.11 @ 11:22AM

A fellow I used used to know and did some work for was a fairly well known H&S/ Environmental consultant. Post TMI he was hired by EPA to do a fairly comprehensive Inpact assessment of the 25-30 mile area around TMI. He was given a protocol and methods and he was to do the work. After several months of his staff's data collection and assessment he wrote his report. He found nothing significant and no real impact. EPA didn't like that so they asked him to repeat it. Same result. So they hired another Engineering Eco-consultant to repeat the study, got same result. To my knowledge or to my former associate's, EPA never reported the studies.

The only thing that has changed is now EPA and MSM decides what result they want and then hire people to go collect data to support it. Result is stuff like global warming.

Alan has since retired and moved and lives in Central PA north of Harrisburg in his mountain retreat. His electric power is from TMI.

Bob - Harrisburg Native| 3.22.11 @ 2:22PM

I remember this incident well. I was in 7th grade at the time. We were told to stay inside. We were given an early dismissal. My dad considered leaving the area but decided to stick around. To this day none of my family nor anyone I know has ever had any sickness related to the TMI accident. My brother works at TMI and has for over 20 years. Although Unit Two was decommissioned, Unit One still operates safely.

jharp| 3.22.11 @ 2:24PM

Life doesn't go on. Three Mile Island killed people. Here's one of them. Chilling. The poison gas knocked her down 3 times.

http://www.tmitestament.com/in.....lowka-zion’s-view/

God you people are stupid.

westcoast barbie| 3.22.11 @ 3:08PM

There is nothing, absolutely nothing in that woman's report that could have possibly been attributed to the TMI incident. Nothing. The blue haze? Why didn't anyone else report a similar sighting? The ground 'burping'? Nothing that took poace at TMI could have caused this. The hydrogen bubble that caused a steam explosion would not have resulted in a rumbling under the surface of the ground.

Given the time of her statement, the small amount of radiation release could not possibly have traveled as far as her farm in that amount of time. (Note: To put the amount of radiation release in perspective, the reporters who flew from the West Coast received more radiation on that flight than they did standing next to the plant covering the news.)

If anything remotely resembling her report had indeed occurred, it would have made international news as the EPA and anti-nuclear groups were (sadly) hoping for a story such as this. Even at that, it would have been debunked as impossible.

jharp| 3.22.11 @ 3:26PM

Try this sh*t for brains.

Is the AIR Supposed to be Blue?

http://www.tinyrevolution.com/.....03465.html

What Killed Marie Holowka

http://www.tinyrevolution.com/.....03467.html

God you people are stupid.

Frisbee| 3.22.11 @ 8:34PM

jharp is a troll. His true name is Gypas.

1389AD| 3.23.11 @ 3:23AM

jharp's calling us all "stupid" says a lot more about jharp than it says about us.

westcoast barbie| 3.22.11 @ 3:16PM

As a post script to the above posting, the problems at TMI were operator-caused. In the end, TMI showed how safe nuclear power actually is because in spite of all the errrors the operators made, the safety systems operated in the manner designed. That half the core melted served to show how safe the reactor vessels and surrounding containment structures are. Again, the radiation release was mimimal - and endangered no one.

jharp| 3.22.11 @ 3:30PM

"Again, the radiation release was mimimal - and endangered no one."

You are an idiot.

What actually occurred at Three Mile Island?

These testimonials by ordinary people have never been a part of the official record.

http://www.tmitestament.com/category/interviews/

Flee| 3.22.11 @ 3:52PM

Why have they never been part of the official record? Why would the state not want to hear about the problems suffered by local residents? Doesn't that lead you to believe there are problems with their accounts? Don't you think a sharp lawyer or two would have found some way to make a tidy profit from their woe if all they say is true? Makes me think they are spewing more toxic steam than the plant ever did.

jharp| 3.22.11 @ 4:19PM

Your questions are fair and I don't know the answers.

However lots of people get hurt and die and never see justice cause there's profits in it.

You know it and know it. I think this is the case at Three Mile Island. You don't.

If you read all 4 of the links I posted I think you'd change your mind.

Anyways, your post was reasonable and fair. Can't say that too often around here.

Jeffrey Lord| 3.22.11 @ 4:23PM

jharp....

Do you really think those of us who live here would stay if everybody were dying because of TMI? You have presented zero proof...and ignore what in fact goes on here in plain sight every single day.

But you are not to be convinced. Essentially, you are a Luddite.

jharp| 3.22.11 @ 5:36PM

No one is claiming "everyone" is dying, *sshole. And you know better than to make such a ridiculous claim. You do it on purpose to strengthen your position.

It is dishonest.

I think that Marie Holowka indeed die as a result of that accident.

In her own words she said it was hot that day. It wasn't. But one would feel hot being exposed to a large dose of radiation.

In her own works she said the poisonous gas knocked her down 3 times and she could not get up. Another symptom

In her own works she claimed everything was blue and you couldn't see because of it. More evidence.

And then she died of cancer.

Jeffrey Lord| 3.22.11 @ 5:53PM

My, you are charming!

Again, nothing you have said is proof. Zip.

Your premise seems to be that we who live here are hiding something....not only a pretty good-sized conspiracy (we meet weekly in the local Giant arena to keep our stories straight?) ...when in fact if you were correct lots of us would have been sick. Not one woman. Lots and lots and lots of us. Didn't happen. That's fact.

If in fact something happens over in Japan...as at Chernobyl....most assuredly it will not be one woman who dies. It will be a lot of people. And we will know....

Everything was blue? Please. That story would be all over this place in .2 seconds if true...."Hey Martha...look...everything is blue." Etc. Sorry. Ya gotta do better than that....

Mark Shepler| 3.22.11 @ 6:04PM

Were those the sites, ahhhh, that also talk about Alien Abductions, Bigfoot, the Truth about 9/11 and the other grand cover-ups of our age? But hey, what would YOU know, Mr. Lord? The truth is out there.... :)

Jeffrey Lord| 3.22.11 @ 6:08PM

Mark...

It's frustrating. JFK and Elvis run a boarding house near TMI and they are the only other ones saying this kind of thing around here....

jharp| 3.22.11 @ 6:12PM

Thank you for the compliment.

I was quite clear what my premise was. And I quote "I think that Marie Holowka indeed die(d) as a result of that accident."

And for you to suggest otherwise is dishonest. No I'm not suggesting that those who live there are hiding something.

You are far too stupid to pull something like that off. You are simply echoing your corporate masters.

We wouldn't want that wingnut welfare to run out now. Would we?

It is so honorable of you to accuse a cancer victim of lying. You must feel so proud of yourself.

Yes, everything was blue. Dumbass. It's one of the effects of radiation you dumbsh*t.

God you people are stupid.

Jeffrey Lord| 3.22.11 @ 6:28PM

jharp...

Seriously...your "evidence" comes from what appears to be a site filled with links to nutty far-left sites and sources. Your language ( aside from the routine left-wing insult obscenity business which is always the first clue to a left-winger...why present a serious argument when obscenities and insults will do?) is the same. "Corporate masters"???? Hello? Hello? Again...if "everything was blue" ...why is she the only person who saw it? "Everything" takes in a lot of ground around here...and believe me, hundreds of reporters descended on this place as they have in Japan....and somehow not one of them saw that "everything was blue"????? You're just not being serious...which in turn is why people here aren't taking you seriously.

jharp| 3.22.11 @ 7:03PM

"hundreds of reporters descended on this place as they have in Japan....and somehow not one of them saw that "everything was blue"?"

Eff off *sshole.

"hundreds of reporters descended on this place"

When? The morning of the accident when Marie Holowka was tumbled from her feet 3 times and when she claims things were blue?

You are an effing *sshole and a dishonest hack.

Those dairy farmers wives who get up at 4:00 AM 365 days a year to mile cows have always been known as liars. Right?

You people are scum.

Jeffrey Lord| 3.22.11 @ 7:52PM

jharp...

Within a day....and they were all over everywhere asking questions...just because a reporter wasn't, say, on the roof of the World Trade Center on 9/11 doesn't mean there weren't hundreds of witnesses. Everybody saw "everything." What you posit is intellectually dishonest....nobody in the plant itself died...nobody in the immediate vicinity of the plant...within feet... saw "everything" turn blue....nobody. Television cameras were out there, still cameras, professional jouranalists. Nobody in the busy airport within hundreds of feet of the plant saw any of this? Not one soul?

The fact, again, is that you have no facts. No witnesses. Zip. Nada. Zero. Worse, those who really were witnesses mean nothing...because your real intent is to go after "corporate masters"....We know the game here.

By the way, lots of people saw something genuinely wrong in Chernobyl. And that place was run by people who had your philosophy.

Game over. Hasta la vista.

jharp| 3.22.11 @ 10:59PM

"What you posit is intellectually dishonest....nobody in the plant itself died...nobody in the immediate vicinity of the plant...within feet... saw "everything" turn blue....nobody."

Good God you are a dumbass.

Let's see here. Cloud of poisonous gas is released into the atmosphere hundreds of feet above where I am working. High enough that there is evidence the cloud settled 7 miles away. And no one in the plant or within a few hundred feet of the plant died.

And you think this supports your claim that no one was poisoned.

God you people are stupid.

Jeffrey Lord| 3.23.11 @ 12:03AM

One last thing....Here's a link to what happens when "everything turns blue"....Really. No mistake.

I'm just taking a wild guess we might not have missed this kind of thing if it had happened here...

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03.....id=webmail

Philip Isett| 3.22.11 @ 3:24PM

Do you mean the squirrel survived?

Jeffrey Lord| 3.22.11 @ 4:25PM

Philip...

Yes...the little b.... He chewed into the grounding wire and lives to chew again. One wire over and roast squirrel would have been on the menu.

Occam's Tool| 3.22.11 @ 6:43PM

Was the squirrel in league with the Zionist Spy Squirrels? This is important news, Mr. Lord, that you are keeping from our Liberal friends---that there is more to the Israeli squirrels---that they actually ATTACKED US citizens!

chester arthur| 3.22.11 @ 8:20PM

Glad to hear the squirrel survived.I find them much more intelligent than people who talk about how dumb anyone reading this story must be.A squirrel will bite you,but they won't insult your intelligence.

Flee| 3.22.11 @ 3:45PM

I get a kick out of how the NRC and Obama say they need to undertake a complete review of the entire nuclear plant lineup throughout the country because of a natural disaster caused accident. Does that mean they have not been doing their duty up until that point? Has the NRC not been going to all the plants on regular schedules to check on their compliance with what I'm certain are a myriad of regulations? Why don't they come out and say "Our current safety rules and periodic checks are up to date and all our plants have met or exceeded the requirements" instead of fanning the flames. If the NRC has not been performing safety checks in the recent past why are they continuing to be funded? There hasn't been a new plant in what 40 years? If the current NRC staff cannot attest to the safety of the system, why not bring in someone that can? That would be real leadership in a time of panic instead of falling in line with the panic mongers on cable. Stand behind the people and systems you have in place or get better people. It amazes me that Obama and his ilk believe govt is the cure for all that ails us but they have such little faith in the work of their experts that they demand an ad hoc study that can only be called overkill.

Marc Jeric| 3.23.11 @ 11:35PM

Well observed. Today's NRC is headed by one of the most declared enemies of nuclear electricity Gregory Jaczko; he was for most of his career a staff member of Congressman Markey - a well known eco-nazi and a declared enemy of anything nuclear, including arms. Jaczko studied physics and philosophy (?). After Markey, he joined Senator Reid's staff where he successfully killed the Yucca Repository by stopping the publication of the final Safety Report on Yucca whichm by the way, was very positive. I suspect that in addition to the usual environmentally and economically disastrous wind and solar power boondoggles, he would probably recommend to the San Francisco population to fend off winter cold by mass masturbation.

JimH| 3.22.11 @ 5:31PM

I used to live close to a very large and very old natural gas storage tank. That was probably more dangerous than being around TMI.

jharp| 3.22.11 @ 6:02PM

I suppose you are a nuclear physicist.

Why do you bozos opine on things that you haven't the slightest clue about?

It does nothing but make you look stupid.

westcoast barbie| 3.23.11 @ 12:05AM

I could tell you I'm a nuclear scientist, but then you'd say that was further evidence of a coverup.

Occam's Tool| 3.22.11 @ 6:49PM

I'm no nuclear physicist, JHarp, but I am a physician.

Let's look at a 13 year followup study, shall we?

Environ Health Perspect. 2000 Jun;108(6):545-52.

Mortality among the residents of the Three Mile Island accident area: 1979-1992.
Talbott EO, Youk AO, McHugh KP, Shire JD, Zhang A, Murphy BP, Engberg RA.

Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261, USA. eot1+@pop.pitt.edu

Comment in:

Environ Health Perspect. 2000 Dec;108(12):A546-9.

Abstract
The largest U.S. population exposed to low-level radioactivity released by an accident at a nuclear power plant is composed of residents near the Three Mile Island (TMI) Plant on 28 March 1979. This paper (a collaboration of The University of Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvania Department of Health) reports on the mortality experience of the 32,135 members in this cohort for 1979-1992. We analyzed standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) using a local comparison population and performed relative risk regression modeling to assess overall mortality and specific cancer risks by confounding factors and radiation-related exposure variables. Total mortality was significantly elevated for both men and women (SMRs = 109 and 118, respectively). All heart disease accounted for 43.3% of total deaths and demonstrated elevated SMRs for heart disease of 113 and 130 for men and women, respectively; however, when controlling for confounders and natural background radiation, these elevations in heart disease were no longer evident. Overall cancer mortality was similar in this cohort as compared to the local population (male SMR = 100; female SMR = 101). In the relative risk modeling, there was a significant effect for all lymphatic and hematopoietic tissue in males in relation to natural background exposure (p = 0.04). However, no trend was noted. We found a significant linear trend for female breast cancer risk in relation to increasing levels of TMI-related likely [gamma]-exposure (p = 0.02). Although such a relationship has been noted in other investigations, emissions from the TMI incident were significantly lower than in other documented studies. Therefore, it is unlikely that this observed increase is related to radiation exposure on the day of the accident. The mortality surveillance of this cohort does not provide consistent evidence that radioactivity released during the TMI accident has a significant impact on the mortality experience of this cohort to date. However, continued follow-up of these individuals will provide a more comprehensive description of the morbidity and mortality experience of the cohort.

Another:

Environ Health Perspect. 2003 Mar;111(3):341-8.

Long-term follow-up of the residents of the Three Mile Island accident area: 1979-1998.
Talbott EO, Youk AO, McHugh-Pemu KP, Zborowski JV.

Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. eot1@pitt.edu

Erratum in:

Environ Health Perspect. 2003 Jul;111(9):A453.

Abstract
The Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power plant accident (1979) prompted the Pennsylvania Department of Health to initiate a cohort mortality study in the TMI accident area. This study is significant because of the long follow-up (1979-1998), large cohort size (32,135), and evidence from earlier reports indicating increased cancer risks. Standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated to assess the mortality experience of the cohort compared with a local population. Relative risk (RR) regression modeling was performed to assess cause-specific mortality associated with radiation-related exposure variables after adjustment for individual smoking and lifestyle factors. Overall cancer mortality in this cohort was similar to the local population [SMRs = 103.7 (male); 99.8 (female)]. RR modeling showed neither maximum gamma nor likely gamma exposure was a significant predictor of all malignant neoplasms; bronchus, trachea, and lung; or heart disease mortality after adjusting for known confounders. The RR estimates for maximum gamma exposure (less than or equal to 8, 8-19, 20-34, greater than or equal to 35 mrem) in relation to all lymphatic and hematopoietic tissue (LHT) are significantly elevated (RRs = 1.00, 1.16, 2.54, 2.45, respectively) for males and are suggestive of a potential dose-response relationship, although the test for trend was not significant. An upward trend of RRs and SMRs for levels of maximum gamma exposure in relation to breast cancer in females (RRs = 1.00, 1.08, 1.13, 1.31; SMRs = 104.2, 113.2, 117.9) was also noted. Although the surveillance within the TMI cohort provides no consistent evidence that radioactivity released during the nuclear accident has had a significant impact on the overall mortality experience of these residents, several elevations persist, and certain potential dose-response relationships cannot be definitively excluded.

So, the evidence is quite inconclusive, pointing toward not significant. Definitely no associations shown. Both articles are available, in full, from PubMed. Happy reading!

jharp| 3.22.11 @ 8:20PM

You are one dumbass doctor.

13 years? If after 13 years 1 study concludes mortality rates were unchanged that means there are no adverse affects?
Is that how it goes?

You have no idea what you are talking about. None.

What sorta dumbass doctor are you anyways? One that trims old peoples toe nails?

God you people are stupid.

Occam's Tool| 4.2.11 @ 1:44AM

Yes, if the mortality rates are unchanged over 13 years that would probably be the conclusion, JHarp.

Stick to opposition to taxpayer funded sports stadiums, JHarp.

Occam's Tool| 4.2.11 @ 1:48AM

By the way, JHARP, there were two studies, and one was a 20 year follow up. Literacy is SOOO important. So is knowledge of the medical literature, etc.

I'm an MD, not a podiatrist, but have you ever looked at the foot infection/ poor wound healing complications of diabetes? Not for a "stupid" MD or DPM to deal with. It would help you greatly if you weren't so vitriolic but more thoughtful in your comments, JHarp.

My job is to keep psychotic people from killing you, JHarp. I do that job quite well, thanks.

Jeffrey Lord| 3.22.11 @ 7:05PM

Occam's Tool:

Boy, you know, I have all of that memorized but I was just reluctant to type it all out!!!! Time, slow fingers etc etc. But thanks! Come to think of it....did you forget the comma?????

Ha! Well done.

Occam's Tool| 3.22.11 @ 8:01PM

Thank you, sir. You are a blessing.

Occam's Tool| 3.22.11 @ 8:03PM

In addition, I use PubMed all the time in my arguments with insurance companies. Nothing like stuffing an article down someone's throat to get authorization.

Frisbee| 3.22.11 @ 8:40PM

Yes, thanks Mr Lord for your memoirs on this event. By your patience with jharp (aka Gypas), you have gone well beyond the call of duty.

chris haynes| 3.22.11 @ 8:06PM

A safety review of US nuclear units?
I hope so. Although I doubt it will be serious.

Look at at Japan. The basic failures in design are outrageous. Plants are designed for "maximum credible occurance". For Japan, the guru's said an 18.8 foot Tsunami. They got one almost twice as big, 34 feet! How incompetent do you get?

More incompetent. They designed their plants to vent hydrogen into the building . Hydrogen. Into a building! Guess what happens. The buildings blow up.

American nuclear plants. The computer controls. They date from the mid 70's. The 70's! No graphics. No mouse. No touch screen Not even any screen! You say so what? A user friendly interface can be critical in managing a crisis. EVERY large US fossil plant has upgraded since the 70's, many two or three times. Why are the nukes stuck in the 70's? One reason. Greed. Costs too much to change them, and the NRC is worse than useless.

Mel Torme| 3.22.11 @ 11:40PM

Are you serious, Chris Haynes? You don't feel comfortable with software unless it's operated within Windows? I feel quite the opposite way. If I knew that any nuke plant operational software used Windows software, that would scare me more than than any isotope I've ever heard of.

With your attitude, you may be ready to buy yourself a brand new Aerospatiale Airbus jetliner. It has the special software that won't let you add too much power on a go-around. It knows better than the pilots - if it thinks you're configured to land, well, by God, you're gonna land - so what if it's in the tall pine are in the rocks below the ridgeline. Those Scarebus designers in France are some sick individuals; but Redmond, WA may have them beat. It's too close to call.

Dee See| 3.22.11 @ 11:51PM

---"As the Globalists finish off their agenda
the rug's going to be pulled out from under
Americans at home."
-ALAN WATT
(essential online coverage)

AGAIN, still unmentioned, any reference to the
also unprecedented 2005 Tsunami on MAO TSE
TUNG's Birthday.

AGAIN, no probe, no focus even on the likes
of Globalist GE/Westinghouse, and their century
long involvments with Bolshevism, Nazism,
Maoism ---and the capstone EUGENICS agenda.

All this while Jeffre I-Meltdown is blithely touring
Brazil with the First Family.

As for WATT, he's looking more on target with
each passing month, week, day

WOW--------------------------------------------------

watches| 3.23.11 @ 8:59AM

Gates predicted: Ma will be the next richest man in the world!
Bill Gates interviewed by reporters, asked: "Do you think the world's richest man who isnext!!" Bill Gates once said: "Ma, " "Why?"the reporter asked that Bill Gates said, "because Ma, and the trades to determine who will be the next richest man in the world
http://www.watch07.com

Marc Jeric| 3.23.11 @ 11:03PM

Still a lot of confusion about that Three Mile Island "accident".
First - it was not an accident; by definition an accident is some mishap that has produced dead or at least injured. Not a fly was touched by that "accident".
Second - 3MI is a case where a utility experienced in sending monthly bills to its captive customers decided to design and build its own nuclear power plants. That is as if a travel agency, say American Express, decided to build and fly its own planes; would you accept that?
Third - TMI operating crew had no engineers in it, just technicians hastily taught the mechanics of operation but no understanding of why and how a nuclear plant operates.
Fourth - the company was in a hurry to place the unit in operation before December 31, in order to profit from write-offs in their tax bill. NRC requested them to repeat the test of the auxiliary cooling water system - unnecessarily so, but then the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is very adept in covering their asses.
Fifth - that unnecessary test was contracted out to a subcontractor with union labor. That crew closed the outlet valves of the auxiliary cooling water pumps and then ran those pumps; the test was successful - but the crew forgot to reopen those valves after the test; you know, quitting time came up and by the work rules the crew left on time.
Sixth - no operator thought to check the subcontractor's work and those valves stayed closed for about two months, unbeknownst to the operators;
Seventh - The relief valve on top of the reactor vessel got stuck in its open position and the reactor cooling water started escaping. The operators did not scram the reactor but instead kept yselessly starting those auxiliary cooling water pumps, totally flabbergasted when the reactor kept heating up. For several hours on end.
Eight - inevitably, the reactor rods melted, but the containment structure performed admirably and contained radiation 100%.
And that was a nuclear ACCIDENT?