Absolutely, Voice for Peace! The accident had just occurred just before my trip to school. If you go back and research the incident you will see that the information dribbled out to the public slowly and downplayed what was happening around Middletown. Sorry you doubt my account but I can honestly say I knew nothing of TMI incident when I experienced the "metallic powdered sugar" in my nostrils and throat that morning. Don't even know if I had my radio on that morning! Even if I did, it probably would not have been broadcast so shortly after the "minor" event (initially) on the Philly station I listed to.
It all became clear as we began to receive reports of the TMI incident throughout the school day that day at school. I heard nothing from our administration. It was fellow teachers who had gotten ahold of the story and were informing the rest of us.
The press, company and government continued to downplay the incident until later (a few days lated) when it was revealed that the reactor went into 1/2 meltdown and came very close to full meltdown over the subsequent days. Check out Gundersen's website. He has documented the contrived communication and inaccurate information that was shared with us in PA as well as folks in other areas where incidents occurred. It is the same thing that happened in Japan with Fukushima: nothing to worry about and the story slowly becomes clear. Thought sharing this was important since our media always seems to protect the corporate interests.
Fortunately, these days we are more aware! Talk to any of us who lived or worked in the 50 mile radius and you will discover much more than was reported!
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.
People Died at Three Mile Island
byHarvey Wasserman
p.s. I am also a Voice for Peace!
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