What happened at TMI was a whole lot worse than what has been reported, Hundreds of times worse

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.counterpunch.org/sturgis04032009.html

Startling Revelations About Three Mile Island Raise New Doubts Over Nuclear Plant Safety
Fooling with Disaster?
By SUE STURGIS

It was April Fool's Day, 1979 -- 30 years ago this week -- when Randall Thompson first set foot inside the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pa. Just four days earlier, in the early morning hours of March 28, a relatively minor problem in the plant's Unit 2 reactor sparked a series of mishaps that led to the meltdown of almost half the uranium fuel and uncontrolled releases of radiation into the air and surrounding Susquehanna River.

It was the single worst disaster ever to befall the U.S. nuclear power industry, and Thompson was hired as a health physics technician to go inside the plant and find out how dangerous the situation was. He spent 28 days monitoring radiation releases.

Today, his story about what he witnessed at Three Mile Island is being brought to the public in detail for the first time -- and his version of what happened during that time, supported by a growing body of other scientific evidence, contradicts the official U.S. government story that the Three Mile Island accident posed no threat to the public.

"What happened at TMI was a whole lot worse than what has been reported," Randall Thompson told Facing South. "Hundreds of times worse."

Thompson and his wife, Joy, a nuclear health physicist who also worked at TMI in the disaster's aftermath, claim that what they witnessed there was a public health tragedy. The Thompsons also warn that the government's failure to acknowledge the full scope of the disaster is leading officials to underestimate the risks posed by a new generation of nuclear power plants.

[Ian David]

1. Remember when Jimmy Carter grew to fifty feet high? n/t

[seemslikeadream]

2. Wasn't it Roslyn?

[Mari333]

3. was that before or after he had lust in his heart nt

[seemslikeadream]

4. oh it was Violet

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/78/78ppepsi.phtml

Matt: All right, don't worry. You'll be fine, Mr. Carter. Just stay inside and close the window, cover youself with some hot blankets, you know, and drink a beer or something.

Carl: I called maintainance.

Matt: Okay, you call the gate and tell them the president's coming up. < Brian calls the gate >

< Matt wipes his face with a handkerchief, as Violet, the maintainance worker, comes in with a mop and bucket. >

Violet: Uh, you asked for me, Mr. Crandall? I just finished with your office.

Matt: Oh yeah, Violet. There's some water on the floor in there. Would you clean it up please?

Violet: Okay, but I've never been in there before.

Matt: I know. We usually don't, but it's a mess. But don't bother waxing, okay?

Violet: Okay.

< Violet goes into the nuclear core to mop up the water, as Matt looks on shamefully >

< cut to research room where Rosalyn Carter is talking with Ross Denton and Dr. Edna Casey >

< SUPER: "DAY 4" >

Rosalyn Carter: Where is Jimmy? I have a right to see him!
Ross Denton: Mrs. Carter, the president is recieving special treatment right now.

[zbdent]

10. forty-nine feet, eleven inches ...

[ContinentalOp]

5. Sure I may get some cancer, but I can find out some cool stuff!

"I had other health physicists from around the country calling me saying, 'Don't let it melt without me!" Randall Thompson recalls. "It was exciting. Our attitude was, 'Sure I may get some cancer, but I can find out some cool stuff.'"

Wow, that's kind of wacko but also admirable.

[ThomWV]

6. Which has killed more, radiation from nuclear plants or pollutants from coal fired plants?

Simple question.

[Tikki]

7. So why not fight to put an end to both....

Simple question....yes/no?

[Traveling_Home]

8. Because better is not the enemy of perfect nt

[ColbertWatcher]

16. But we know better now. Don't we? n/t

[zbdent]

11. live downwind and downstream of either ...

see if you really feel comfortable ...

[Orsino]

12. Heck, which emit more radiation? n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

15. Hmm. (EDITED TO CLARIFY)

Right now, fewer deaths can be attributed to nuclear plants as compared to coal-fired plants, because there are fewer nuclear plants than coal-fired ones. But, can you guarantee that will still be a valid argument if nuclear power becomes the only source for energy in America (like how the GOP wants things to be)?

Will the answer be the same after 5 years? 10 years? 20?

Regardless of how you feel personally (or even intellectually) about nuclear power, do you trust the people who gave us Katrina, the 1-35W bridge in Minneapolis and who gutted the FDA and the EPA with oversight of nuclear facilities?

Nuclear power is way too dangerous to be allowed in the hands of another "Brownie."

[MadHound]

18. Oh, give it time, nuclear still has a great chance of killing lots of people

After all, Chernobyl is still in play, and getting worse as we speak. The emergency containment measures used at Chernobyl are starting to degrade, and if something isn't done within the next five years ago, well, the death count from that disaster could go up radically.

That's the problem with nuclear power, it's the disaster that can keep on killing and killing, for thousands of years.

[starroute]

9. Unsurprisingly, Southern Co. is at the forefront of the nuclear revival

From the linked article: "With more than $18 billion in federal subsidies at stake, 17 companies are seeking federal licenses to build a total of 26 nuclear reactors across the country, the first applications since the 1979 disaster. The Atlanta-based Southern Co. plans to begin site work this summer for two new reactors at the Vogtle site in Georgia, where state lawmakers recently approved legislation forcing ratepayers to foot the bill for those facilities up front."

Southern Co. (along with its subsidiary Alabama Power) has a long, long history of being particularly evil, even for an energy company. Here are just two examples:


http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/16/5267

An American power company with close financial links to President George Bush has been named as one of the world's top producers of global warming pollution.

The first-ever worldwide database of such pollution also reveals the rapid growth in global-warming emissions by power plants in China, South Africa and India. Power plants already produce 40 per cent of US greenhouse gas and 25 per cent of the world's.

But it is the enormous carbon footprint of Southern Company - among the largest financiers of Republican Party politicians - which has raised eyebrows. Southern's employees handed George Bush $217,047 to help him get elected, and they and the company have contributed an extraordinary $6.2m to Republican campaigns since 1990.

A single Southern Company plant in Juliette, Georgia already emits more carbon dioxide annually that Brazil's entire power sector. The company is in the top two of America's dirtiest utility polluters and sixth worst in the world.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0304/S00144.htm

{Greg Palast} went after Atlanta's Southern Co. for keeping two sets of books that enabled it to charge customers for $61 million in spare parts that had not been used. A Southern senior veep, Jake Horton, was going to blow the whistle on this and other company misdeeds such as illegal payments to politicians. But, on April 10, 1989, Horton boarded a corporate plane to go to a meeting where he planned to confront Southern's top brass -- and the plane exploded. Why the big boom? No one knows -- or is saying.

Palast's reporting almost resulted in the criminal indictment of the company -- until Bush the First had his Justice Department intervene and declare that all of the alleged wrongdoing was kosher because an accounting firm had OK'd the cooked books. That accounting firm was none other than Arthur Andersen, whose ill fame would peak a decade later in the Enron meltdown.

"Jake's death and the failure to indict Southern and Andersen in 1989 marked the radical turning point, albeit unseen at the time, in the way corporate America would do business," Palast comments in his book.

[hunter]

13. So who's going out to dig in the dirt?

If the spill was that big there would still be plenty of evidence of it.

Without the numbers this is a bunch of hot air, and the numbers wouldn't be that difficult to get.

Unfortunately the anti-nuclear activists have a very bad and well deserved reputation for hyperbole, just as the nuclear industry has a reputation for evading serious questions. At the very least the anti-nuclear faction would need someone who isn't a clown to convince a big university lab to do some impartial field work... yet again.

:eyes:

But who knows? Maybe the right sorts of cow turds haven't been turned over yet looking for the lost TMI radiation. Maybe they should offer a prize to the first wretched unloved grad student who finds it.

[ColbertWatcher]

14. My favorite American nuclear disaster was the first one--Santa Susana ...

... Wikip*dia says it happened on July 13, 1959.

Ah, those were the good old days when America never hesitated to do whatever we had to do to defeat the Commie threat that was sure to happen at any moment. This included nuclear experiments and testing rockets near a densely populated area (Los Angeles). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Susana_Field_Laboratory#Conflict_over_cleanup">Wikip*dia says there was over 30,000 rocket tests conducted at the site and a total of 4 nuclear accidents. (What!? Never heard of 'em? Gosh, that must have meant they weren't so bad, then! Hurray!)

The media coverage, investigation and dissemination of information to the public first got blamed on the original owner/operator of the site, Rocketdyne, but eventually that blame moved on to new owner Boeing as well as every administration ever since.

Fortunately for the American public, the Bush Administration was forthright in making this information available to the growing population of Santa Susana's neighbors. Inspired by this leadership and mindful of their responsibility to the millions of people living so close to the allegedly http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/27/local/me-rocket27">contaminated area, Santa Susana's owners hurried the clean up.

For Rocketdyne/Boeing so loved the people of Los Angeles that they joined forces with the Bush Department of Energy to clean it up as fast as they could. And who would doubt their sincerity, motives or the data they used to come to their conclusions?

Now, it seems a few of those residents weren't satisfied with either Rocketdyne/Boeing's stewardship of the facility or the Bush Administration's Energy Department, so in 2005 they started their own little website (http://www.rocketdynewatch.org/index.php/home/sitehistory/ ) to help keep everyone informed of what's happening since Boeing seemed to busy with other things and the Bush Administration had other priorities.

Oh, here's a fun fact, the Santa Susana Field Laboratory will be celebrating its 50th anniversary later this year!

The greater Los Angeles metropolitan area will be marking 50 years of contaminated ground water as well I'm sure.

Yay!

[madokie]

17. Sure it was

In my opinion there is only one thing that can be said about the nuclear power industry with any certainty and that is they LIE. If the people of the world knew the truth of the dangers of using nuclear power there would be no and I mean NO nuclear power plants anywhere on this world. We can do better and we have too. The money and time spent on this dead horse should be considered criminal in the fact it is resourses wrongly spent. If the truth was known there is no telling the lives lost to this big LIE that is the nuclear power industry.

[Wednesdays]

19. Randall Thompson?

I like his choral music. :)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

20. 30 years seems to be the half-life on getting real info about anything.

[Lerkfish]

21. hmm. all the nuclear power supporters always point to how WELL TMI was handled

as proof of how safe we are .


what will they use now?

[depakid]

22. More Art Bell material from counterpunch

The left's very own tabloid.