25 Years After Three Mile Island,
Industry-wide Problems Increase
NC WARN joins citizen groups
across the nation this week observing the 25th anniversary of the
Three Mile Island meltdown. Just as
the industry and the NRC pretend that
Three Mile Island didn’t hurt anyone, they
are pushing the deception that U.S. plants now are safer than ever.
Below are several key pieces of information that refute that dangerous
mindset:
Admiral Hyman Rickover deeply regretted persuading President Carter to suppress
“alarming” information that TMI was “infinitely more dangerous than was ever made public.”
"In May, 1983, my father-in-law, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, told me that at the
time of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident a full report was commissioned by President Jimmy
Carter. He (my father-in-law) said that the report, if published in its entirety, would have destroyed the
civilian nuclear power industry, because the accident at Three Mile Island was infinitely more dangerous
than was ever made public. He told me that he had used his enormous personal influence with President Carter
to persuade him to publish the report only in a highly 'diluted' form. The President himself had
originally wished the full report to be made public. In November, 1985, my father-in-law told me that he
had come to deeply regret his action in persuading President Carter to suppress the most alarming aspects of
that report."
Jane Rickover,
Toronto, Canada. July 18, 1986. (notarized statement)
"In 2003, the industry saw the highest number of safety system actuations since 1995,
the highest number of scrams while critical since 1996; the highest precursor occurrence rate since 1991; and
reported the highest [generating] capacity factor in history. The reason that capacity factors are at record
levels and safety is dropping fast is related to the first item -- the NRC is prioritizing business at the
expense of safety. If NRC keeps it up, they are going to kill somebody."
David Lochbaum,
Nuclear Safety Engineer at Union of Concerned Scientists
March 2004
Testimonials from residents living near Three Mile Island:
www.tmia.com/accident/witness.html
3 Mile Island Cover-Up: Dr. Rosalie Bertell's Signed, Notarized Statement, 1998
www.mothersalert.org/bertell.html
High doses of radiation may have injured people living
downwind of TMI, scientists at UNC-CH say:
www.tmia.com/healthsafety/wing4.html
Refuting the NRC on causes and consequences of the TMI accident, March 2004:
www.tmia.com/accident/whatswrong.html
Continuing Problems at Shearon Harris in central NC: a new summary from
NC WARN:
Continuing Safety Concerns at
Shearon Harris | 
is
a grassroots organization using science and activism to reduce hazards to
public health and the environment from industrial and radioactive
pollution.
Activists ask Progress Energy CEO to
Correct Dangerous Flaws, Fire Violations at Nuclear Plants; Nuclear Regulatory Commission Castigated for
“Regulatory Malpractice” 
