Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective

by J. Samuel Walker

Book Overview

Twenty-five years ago, Hollywood released The China Syndrome, featuring Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas as a TVnews crew who witness what appears to be a serious accident at a nuclear power plant. In a spectacular coincidence, on March 28, 1979, less than two weeks after the movie came out, the worst accident in the history of commercial nuclear power in the United States occurred at Three Mile Island. For five days, the citizens of central Pennsylvania...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520246837
• ISBN13: 9780520246836
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 314 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Exciting for a non-fiction account of history

A brilliant piece that is both a historical and technical account of the real excitement and near disaster that was Three Mile Island. While it is stands as a sad moment in history, it could have been so much worse. Instead of engaging in fingerpointing, the author has taken the high road and portrayed how human error is possible when time is short and events are unfolding quickly. It's hard to believe that so much passed in a mere four days. You get the sense that the author could have easily doubled the size of the book and it still would have been interesting and exciting. I really like that he did not go easy on the science. Instead, he explains exactly what the technical failures were. He takes great care to do so in a manner that a layman can understand. A great account of an important event in American History. If you're looking for something that educational, historical, and exciting, this is a definite thumbs up.

This is why we have no new Nuke power plants built

Read this for graduate American history course. The book in review, Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective, written by Samuel Walker is a subtle but powerful warning regarding the issue of nuclear power. The style of the book is almost of a passive observer who meticulously gathers facts and then attempts to make an educated decision on the matter. And I believe Walker's purpose in writing the book is to do just that. It seems as if Walker does not want the reader to make any emotional appeals either for or against the use of nuclear power. Rather, he strictly wants the reader to make a reasonable decision based purely on facts. Walker first dissects the debate and the history regarding nuclear power. In 1954, Congress passed the Atomic energy act which allocated nuclear capabilities for civilian use, specifically, its ability to provide an abundance of electricity. During the late fifties and early sixties, the demand for nuclear energy grew, and plant construction increased. Yet, by the late sixties into the mid-seventies, economic recession, massive inflation, and a fuel crisis gripped America, and these factors contributed to decreased construction of new plants. Walker examines this debate at its state in the mid-seventies. Yet, I believe that Walker's analysis of the arguments go much deeper than a simple retelling of the facts. Rather, at one point in the text, he cited a case of opposition to nuclear power by a religious group on moral, rather than tactical grounds. I believe that this issue confronts the reader through Walker's arguments, but in an unemotional, unobtrusive way. In assessing the opposition to nuclear power, Walker's arguments force the reader to ask whether the use of nuclear power should be halted because of the potential dangers they pose to the public, or if, on a deeper level, the responsibility of this awesome power is beyond the reach of man. In accessing the arguments for nuclear power, I think Walker posits the question of whether nuclear power is a practical solution to the pressing energy needs of the United States, or once again on a deeper level, if man is almost obligated to use nuclear power because to deny it would be to deny his own greatness and responsibility for providing for his fellows. Attached to the opposition of nuclear power is the potential of public reaction. Walker explores this issue throughout the text. He specifically focuses on the tendency of rumors and misinformation to exacerbate public fears. While hysteria or widespread panic never occurred during the Three Mile Island Crisis, Walker nonetheless examines instances where periods of tension gripped an already stressed public, such as when the engineers decided to "burp" the plant and release small amounts of radioactive clouds of gas into the atmosphere. Also, on a few occasions during the crisis, the prospect of evacuation always threatened and at times, he cites the publics growing agitation due to erroneous

A Historical And Regulatory Perspective Of Three Mile Island

"Three Mile Island" by J. Samuel Walker is a fine treatise on the Three Mile Island (TMI) accident in historical perspective. Walker deals less with the technical and physical aspects of the accident to take a more overarching view of the operations of TMI (and other nuclear plants) from a political, organizational, and managerial standpoint. Walker is the official historian of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and as such has spent the bulk of his professional life researching and documenting nuclear issues. He is a lucid and interesting writer for anyone interested in the material at hand. I recommend this book unequivocally. I further recommend that this book be read in tandem with "Hostages of Each Other" by Joseph Rees, which is actually my favorite general account of regulatory interactions vis-a-vis TMI. This is an excellent book to assist in grasping the complex regulatory, political, and corporate organizational influences in nuclear power, particularly relative to the TMI accident.

Valuable and Important

I really enjoyed this book. It creates context for the industry and its regulators as the TMI accident occurs, and then it reports the fascinating details that pushed the accident to the brink of affecting public health and safety and then pulled it back again. I think this book should be required reading for all public officials, federal, state, and local, who are in positions of responsibility to respond to a nuclear emergency. This book would help them stay humble and focused. Discussion on public health got close to sounding too sure that everything was and is fine in the TMI area -- not sure we know enough yet to say for sure.

Will become a valuable resource for future scholars

It is hard to believe but it has been some 25 years since America's worst nuclear accident took place. In "Three Mile Island" author J. Samuel Walker takes a look back at the tragic events that upset us all so much back in March of 1979. Eminently qualified to undertake this project, Walker succeeds in presenting all sides of this extremely complicated and highly controversial subject matter. Was equipment failure the chief culprit here or was human error more to blame? Aside from attempting to explain exactly what happened on that fateful day, Walker spends a considerable amount of time evaulating why the various players in this saga reacted they way they did. This book is meticulously researched and fairly well written but I must admit that at times I got lost with all of the scientific jargon that was necessarily included. In the long run I feel that this book will prove to be a terrific research volume. If you are like me and not well versed in the sciences it can be a somewhat difficult read.