WHERE WERE YOU??!! - When you heard about Three Mile Island (25yrs ago)

[LynneSin]

25 years ago was a very memorable time for this gal. On March 28th, 1979, the worst nuclear power accident (which was absolutely nothing compared to Chernobyl) happened.

I was 6th period study hall with Mr. Segro at Susquenita High School. My childhood home was about 12 miles as the crow flies from TMI and our family use to go to Goldsboro to waterski during the summer (Goldsboro is across the river from Middletown, PA - home of TMI). So summertime I'd see the towers of TMI all the time and I thought they the devices that make fluffy white clouds (hey, we had been waterskiing since I was 7 - what did I know about nuclear power when I was a kid?).

Anyhow, we were in Study Hall and all the classes were called to the Auditorium for early dismissal. My HS was 7-12 grade, so the auditorium was packed and we were called by bus to head home. The buses were parked in front of the school so we kids would have minimum exposure outside.

When we got home, our family packed our bags but didn't go anywhere. We had the rest of the week off from school - but that week turned out to be the nicest spring days. But because of TMI, we were not allowed to go outside and play.

Our family still went waterskiing back in front of TMI that summer after the accident.

Anyone else remember TMI and where they were when it happened?

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. I lived in Syracuse, New York. I remember my father and mother

talking about it at the dinner table. I was nine at the time, so it wasn't a huge deal to me. I rememeber my father ranting about the evils of nuclear power and why weren't we going after more natural sources.

[NoPasaran]

2. I was on spring break

from college in Pittsburgh so I don't recall the moment I heard about. (Actually there's a lot about that period that's kind of hazy.) But I do remember going to a No Nukes rally at the state capital in Harrisburg a few weeks later and then the big demonstration in DC after that.

[Westegg]

3. I was in school in Pittsburgh, PA...

...And just a few days before that, I'd seen the movie "The China Syndrome," which had just been released, and when I heard about TMI, I IMMEDIATELY remembered the line from the film about the nuke-plant meltdown devestating an amount of land "the size of Pennsylvania." Scary shit!

[LynneSin]

13. I had seen China Syndrome a few weeks before the accident

YIKES

:scared:

BTW, on the 20th anniversary of TMI, the local movie theater in downtown Middletown PA (The Elks) showed 'The China Syndrome' again.

[JVS]

4. I was at home. Dad was sent out there to help.

As a nuclear engineer specilizing in cooling systems they had need for him. He brought back cocoa mugs from the Hershey factory.

[LuLu550]

5. Trying to contact my cousin in PA

She lived only a few miles away. Packed up her kids and bolted to her Mom's house on Long Island. We were really scared, having seen the movie "China Syndrome" not all that long before.

[Zomby Woof]

6. 6th grade in Va Beach VA

It wasn't even a month later when a classmate had a "I survived Three Mile Island" t-shirt. Marketing in America.

[Hand]

7. Lake Louise, Alberta...

I believe we more or less decided that it was a long way away and there wasn't much we could do about it, so LET'S PARTY...

:nuke: :beer:

[Champ]

8. I didn't even exist!

I would like to know exactly where I was 25 years ago.

[LynzM]

19. I didn't either :) n/t

[kitkatrose]

21. Heh. I was a twinkle in my mother's eye. n/t

[neverborn]

22. Same O_O

[fudge stripe cookays]

9. 7th grade in Austin, Texas

but I don't remember the exact moment I heard about it.

I think I was probably watching the CBS Evening NEws with Walter Cronkite or something. And it wasn't until years later (when Chernobyl occurred) that I really realized the significance of it-- what COULD have happened.

[starroute]

10. I don't remember how I first heard

But I do remember following the events closely as they unfolded. We live in southeastern PA, and my elder son was five months old at the time. One woman who'd been in my birthing class packed up and went off to visit her mom in New York. That seemed a bit panicky to me, but I still wanted to be ready to jump in the car and head out across the Delaware if things got worse in a hurry.

[Kellanved]

11. wasn't around then

I know what I was doing when the news about Chernobyl broke: I was playing outside when my mother came out like a lightning bolt and grabbed me to shower and change my clothes.
The next year was spent mostly indoors (the whole year sucked royally: school started and playing indoors only ), with frequent Geiger counter tests.
The other thing I remember is that we started buying food from one farmer, who brought his cows into safety (the stable) fast enough: it was the only milk with acceptable radiation levels available - supermarket was a total no-no.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

15. Where were you at the time?

[Kellanved]

17. a Frankfurt /Germany Suburb

Just arrived from Switzerland, but it would have been almost the same story there :-( .

[YellowRubberDuckie]

20. Interesting...

People seem to be talking about Nuclear accidents a lot today.
Duckie

[StopTheMorans]

12. I was 2 and a half weeks old, probably breast-feeding I'd guess

[felonious thunk]

14. Dad packed us in the car and we were gone

Having grown up there too, we got out of the area within a couple of hours and went to stay with some relatives in Western PA. I'm sure I'd been outside playing that day, and I don't know if my brother and I really knew what was going on, except that it was time to take a quickly planned trip.

In Middletown there's a golf course, Sunset I think, that's up on a bluff overlooking the airport and the river. It's a few miles from TMI and had a neat view of it. It was always a little surreal to be up there playing golf there and thinking about what could have happened there.

[LynneSin]

23. Were you actually born when it happened?

I thought you were younger than that??!!!

BTW, did you have Mr. Segro in class? EEP!!!

[felonious thunk]

24. Yeah I was around then

I was not yet in school, but I remember when this happened. That doesn't ring a bell with me, so he must not have been there when I went through.

[Endangered Specie]

16. I was still an egg, the sperm wasnt even made yet

[CO Liberal]

18. I Was At Work at Vydec in Florham Park, NJ

I used to keep a radio on at my desk, and I remember listening to the bulletins. After a while, I had a crowd around my desk.

[ConcernedCanuk]

25. San Diego California, was my one year "escape" from Canukville

.
.
.

Interesting to note, over 50% of working plants in the USA are over 25 years old.

A little bit scary I think

If one goes here and Scroll down to "Reactor Data", checks in the "Alphabetical" list, you will get an excel file, which you can rearrange under "data" - "sort" to organize the data the way you want.

ALL plants except one are over 10 years old, with 53 0f 104 predating 1979

:scared:

[livetohike]

26. Teaching elementary school

in rural South Carolina. Since my husband had some experience working in a nuclear power plant (Shippingport, PA), I knew a little bit of what was happening at TMI. I can remember thinking how potentially awful this could be especially for the immediate communities.

[SarahB]

27. I was in first grade

I remember, but not very clearly. The Challenger explosion was my big memorable national tragedy as a kid.