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| Martha Cooper — AP photo |
In 1979, roughly 25,000 people lived within five miles of the giant cooling towers that became symbols of the nation's worst commercial nuclear accident
Washington Post Gallery of Photos of that day
From the NRC here is a link providing information and chronology of events of the Three Mile Island Meltdown
CURRENT STATUS: Today, the TMI‑2 reactor is permanently shut down and defueled, with the reactor coolant system drained, the radioactive water decontaminated and evaporated, radioactive waste shipped off‑site to an appropriate disposal site, reactor fuel and core debris shipped off‑site to a Department of Energy facility, and the remainder of the site being monitored. In 2001, FirstEnergy acquired TMI-2 from GPU. FirstEnergy has contracted the monitoring of TMI-2 to Exelon, the current owner and operator of TMI-1. The companies plan to keep the TMI-2 facility in long‑term, monitored storage until the operating license for the TMI‑1 plant expires, at which time both plants will be decommissioned.
When this was going on, it was so intense it was off the scale. I'll never forget it and the news footage from those times is still riveting.
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