This episode of "The American Experience" is about the giant screw- up at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant that ALMOST resulted in a meltdown! While it's the worst American nuclear power plant accident ever, it didn't kill anyone--that's the good side. On the bad, however, because of a lot of mistakes and complacency it almost did! The show does a really good job of chronologically following events and letting the viewer see how it must have been back when the accident occurred. The biggest surprises to me were how the powers that be lied to the Lieutenant Governor and how the President of the US couldn't get in contact with the Governor during this mess! Additionally, how much human error led to all the problems is pretty amazing--which caused the problem AND which later overstated the risk of a complete meltdown due to incorrect calculations! Oops. Very revealing and a bit scary.
This show is very well made and well worth seeing--regardless of your feelings about nuclear power. Pro and anti-nuke folks and everyone in between should find this interesting and the show wasn't preachy or obviously skewed in its presentation. In other words, it's more historical than editorial in style.
This show is very well made and well worth seeing--regardless of your feelings about nuclear power. Pro and anti-nuke folks and everyone in between should find this interesting and the show wasn't preachy or obviously skewed in its presentation. In other words, it's more historical than editorial in style.
