March 28, 1979: Reactor Meltdown at Three Mile Island
I was about as far away from Three Mile Island as you could be and still be in the United States (I was in the middle of the Mojave Desert). I must admit I don't really remember much about it from the news--that was before 24-hour news channels exposed and picked apart every aspect of a story before your eyes, and I was about to turn 12 and was more interested in surviving 7th grade and dealing with menarche. In fact I'm pretty sure I learned about it from watching Lou Grant, a show I loved that had lots of gritty reporters.
But it was a very scary thing, and although it pales compared to the results of Chernobyl, I have been very leery of nuclear power ever since I first learned about Three Mile Island. It just doesn't seem smart to rely on a plant that 1) has waste that will stay radioactive for years and no one wants in their backyard and 2) when things go wrong, like a loss of power such as in Japan, things really go wrong, putting the population but more importantly our very environment at risk, in such a way that we may never know just how wrong things went.
That's my take on it, anyway. I know there is no 'perfect' energy source, but nuclear is so far from perfect. And where in the hell did it ever get the moniker 'clean energy', given the waste left behind?
No comments:
Post a Comment