In 1979, a nuclear power plant on Three Mile Island, which is about 100 miles west of Philadelphia,

had a major accident.

The government official said that a breakdown in an atomic power plant in Pennsylvania today

is probably the worst nuclear reactor accident to date.

I heard a very loud noise that sounded like a huge release of steam.

One of the reactors at Three Mile Island overheated and partially melted down.

A cooling pump broke down and the plant did just what it was supposed to do shut itself off,

but not before some radioactivity had escaped.

Heat and pressure built up and some radioactive steam escaped into the building housing

the reactor and eventually out into the plant and the air.

Certain people have been advised to evacuate. Others have been urged to remain indoors.

Telephone lines in the Harrisburg area are jammed, and immediate highways are too, as more people decide to leave.

No one died, and it turned out only a small amount of radiation was released.

The exposure for 2 million people was less than that of a chest x-ray, but the disaster

had a lasting impact on the American psyche.

I think one of the big ramifications was just that there was a loss of

confidence in the nuclear power industry. That's our colleague Jennifer Hiller who covers energy.

And people just became maybe more aware of the problems or more fearful of the potential downside.

And kind of the upshot over a long period of time was that nuclear power plant

construction in the US really slowed down in the 80s and 90s and we really aren't building plants today and three mile

island is one of the reasons why. After the accident one of three mile islands

reactors actually kept running for 40 years,

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