Very important Netflix show: Meltdown: Three Mile Island

[PCIntern]

Absolutely worth watching even if you think you know all about this catastrophe. Two words: Polar Crane

[dchill]

1. I watched it last night. Turns out...

...I live about 30 miles from Three Mile Island. I knew it was nearby, but I mapped it last night while I was watching.

[PCIntern]

5. I'm from Philly originally

and was in professional school at that time. My then girlfriend lived a couple miles away downwind…The China Syndrome had just come out - a nightmare.

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

2. Watched it last week...

Highly recommended!

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[Ocelot II]

4. Saw it last night; didn't know about the coverup wrt the polar crane.

Interesting and scary.

[FakeNoose]

6. Thanks I'll look for this

Netflix is considered an "entertainment" company but they are to be commended for backing from really great documentaries lately. In the same way that HBO started financing some great docs about 10 years, Netflix is putting it out there and doing some nice stuff. They're one of the few who can afford it these days, because the documentaries usually aren't big money-makers.

[hunter]

7. Link? Is this something on the TV machine?

Three Mile Island was a billion dollar accident that killed or injured fewer people than the normal operation of any coal power plant. The economic damages caused by coal will be greater too, especially as the oceans rise and weather becomes more violent.

The technical and procedural problems that caused this accident, which occurred more than 40 years ago, have been addressed.

Does anyone remember how unsafe automobiles were forty years ago? In 1979 automobiles killed over 50,000 people. In 2020 about 39,000 people died in automobile accidents, even though vehicle miles traveled had doubled.

[Ocelot II]

9. It's on Netflix.

What was significant about TMI isn't just what actually happened but what almost happened, as well as the coverup that followed and what happened to a whistleblower. If it hadn't been for the whistleblower, those technical problems might never have been addressed - assuming they really have been.

[hunter]

10. I was extremely present as a radical young California anti-nuclear activist then.

I burned a lot of gasoline traveling between Humboldt Bay and San Onofre.

[Freddie]

8. Highly recommended. Had no idea of the coverups involved

Family (grandparents, aunt, cousin) lived in York County maybe 20 miles away. They were on alert for an evacuation notice and had no idea what to do with Grandpa who was a bedridden invalid. In hindsight, the whole area should have been evacuated.

[Novara]

11. The cover-up ALWAYS makes things much worse

I just started watching this afternoon but had to pause for baseball. I'm already infuriated by all the lies they told in the first three days!

[Joenobody]

14. That would have killed way more people

Than anything that happened at TMI.

[dchill]

12. K&R

[H2O Man]

13. Recommended.

Back in the late 1930s, professors from Cornell University studying Iroquois history were taken on a tour of the Susquehanna River by leaders from Onondaga. Of special interest was Three Mile Island, as it was the birthplace of the historic figure we know as Hiawatha. I remember talking with Chief Waterman -- obviously years later -- about how often sites that native people consider sacred are destroyed by modern society, including this example. There are numerous others, but this one stands out.

[LeftInTX]

15. Watched it!

Three Mile Island was such big news at the time, but then after a month or so, it faded from the headlines. In the 80's, I just didn't have time to follow up on all the news

Highly recommended!

[PCIntern]

16. Glad you did!!

[Initech]

17. "You've turned a potential Chernobyl into a mere Three Mile Island."