| In 1979, roughly 25,000 people lived
within five miles of the giant cooling towers that became
symbols of the nation's worst commercial nuclear accident.
(Martha Cooper, AP photo) |
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| After the March 28 accident, reporters
from around the world descended on the nuclear power
station on the Susquehanna River, 10 miles from the
Pennsylvania state capital in Harrisburg. (John McDonnell,
The Washington Post) |
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| Workers from the nuclear power plant were
checked for radiation exposure at the end of their shifts.
(Frank Johnston, The Washington Post) |
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| A technician from the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission checked for radioactivity outside a post office
in Middleton, PA, less than five miles from the scene of
the accident. (Frank Johnston, The Washington Post) |
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| John G. Herbein, a spokesman for
Metropolitan Edison, clashed with the press about his
company's openness about the events in its crippled Unit
2 reactor. (UPI photo) |
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| Pennsylvania Gov. Richard Thornburgh
advised children and pregnant women to evacuate the area
around Three Mile Island. (Frank Johnston, The Washington
Post) |
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| At a shelter in Hershey, PA, evacuees
waited for word on when they could return home. (Frank
Johnston, The Washington Post) |
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| Four days after the accident, President
Jimmy Carter, educated as a nuclear engineer, rode a
school bus to the damaged plant, leading a delegation that
included Gov. Thornburgh and first lady Rosalynn Carter.
(Frank Johnston, The Washington Post) |
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| Carter, touring the reactor's control
room, calmed public fears with his visit, even as
technicians grappled with a potentially explosive gas
bubble. (AP photo) |
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| Four years after the accident, a video
camera lowered into the Unit 2 reactor core showed that
damage to its uranium fuel was more extensive than
originally thought. (AP photo) |
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