("Nothing serious . . . .really . . .honest!)

Around four in the morning on March 28, 1979, a series of events would eventually turn into one of the biggest Nuclear Power Plant disasters in U.S. History. Initial reports indicated nothing much had gone wrong. In fact, as the situation slowly came to light, officials still vehemently denied anything was other than routine. Attempts at spin and passing the accident off as "nothing to be concerned about" hid the reality that this was much more serious than previously thought.

For example, this exchange from a Spokesman for Metropolitan Edison:

"The plant is in a safe condition. The radiation levels at the site boundary are really only a tenth of the general emergency level where we usually get concerned. We do have our crews out. We're monitoring for airborne contamination. The amount we've fond is minimal. Very small traces of radioactivity has been released from the plant"

The tune would change dramatically by the next day.

John Amato:

Gordon Skene has a great series up on Newstalgia covering the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear power plant disaster. I love history and Gordon has been doing a "bang up" job so far.

If you want to hear more news reports, here are Parts II, III, and IV of the series.

April 10, 1979, and if you were living in the infamous Mid-West belt known as "Tornado Alley" you'd be dazed and counting your blessings that you weren't one of the 59 who lost their lives in this worst series of Tornadoes to hit the area in years.

And if you were on the other side of the planet, around Kampala Uganda, and you were Idi Amin, you'd be planning your escape in the wake of advancing troops from Tanzania, who were spelling the end of your regime.

That's the kind of day it was.

If you were a Union Trucker, you'd be looking at a tentative settlement in one of the longest strikes in history, and if you were a Steel Worker your employment would still be hanging in the balance.

In other news on this day - Israel's Menachem Begin did a personal reach-out to Egypt's Anwar Sadat in the form of a phone call to discuss points in the Peace Plan. Iran was busy executing 13 more of its citizens by firing squad on charges ranging from murder to "warring against God".

In the aftermath of the 3-Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant disaster, tests for radioactive contamination in the area around the reactor turned up negative, which spelled some relief for anxious residents.

And after 41 days of testimony, the infamous Marvin vs. Marvin case was heading off to the jury.

All that, and a bunch more for this day, via the CBS World News Roundup and the 9:00 am (West Coast) News for April 10, 1979.

As the news from Japan continues to pour in, along with conflicting reports, spin and speculation, I kept thinking about another situation that had most of America on the edge of its collective seat - the accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power plant in Pennsylvania. Although not triggered by a massive earthquake and Tsunami, Three Mile Island did start off with seemingly harmless reports of "possible problems" much the same way as the current story in Japan did - the focus of attention was certainly the 8.9 (now upgraded to 9.0) earthquake and the resultant Tsunami and the incredible devastation that continues to unfold. But as reports kept coming in, the seriousness of the events at the Fukushima Daiichi Power plants became more and more apparent, much the same way it unfolded at Three Mile Island. Then as now, it was anyone's guess as to what was going to happen - and the scenarios ran the gamut.

On this broadcast of Face The Nation from April 1, 1979, Senator Gary Hart, then Chairman of the Senate Sub-committee on Nuclear energy was asked what the potential hazards actually were with the Three Mile Island situation. The broadcast breaks away about 17 minutes in to a bulletin about the arrival of President Carter in Pennsylvania.

George Herman (CBS News Moderator): “Senator Hart, we hear a great deal of reporting from the site of the Three Mile Island nuclear event, some of it seems contradictory, some of it is hard to understand. You’re the Chairman of the Nuclear sub-committee, can you tell us, do you believe that there is still a risk that before this is all over, before the entire incident is finished, that there is the risk of a catastrophic accident?

Sen. Gary Hart: “Yes Mister Herman, I do believe that risk exists. It’s very difficult to quantify because this is a unique occurrence. There are teams of experts, as you know on the scene both private and public officials. They are trying to determine the best course of dealing with this unique situation. But until this situation is dealt with, until the reactor is in what is called a “cold shutdown situation”, the risk you’ve described does exist.”

So the question is raised again just how safe are Nuclear Power Plants. And the answer always seems to be "dunno". They asked it 32 years ago - and they're still asking. It might be safe to assume building your Nuclear facility on or around an active fault line might be a bad idea. At the moment though, there are some who think it's more important to take the argument off the rails by saying Nuclear Power plants are safer because of stepped security against terrorist attacks, skirting the issue of the very real danger of natural disasters. But I guess that strain of logic just doesn't work on some.

(Yes, it's worse than what they're telling you, but I can't tell you how bad.")

"Senator Hart, you say there is a risk of a catastrophic accident at the nuclear plant, and you say it is difficult to quantify it. I'll respect that difficultly, but let me ask you this - do you think that the risk is sufficient so that Pennsylvania should be considering immediate or phased future evacuation of part of the area? Hart: yes I do."

Face The Nation - April 1, 1978. Senator Gary Hart (yes, the 1988 Presidential candidate) was Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee on Nuclear Regulation at the time and faced a panel of questioners (Robert Shakne of CBS News, David Burnham of The New York Times and moderator George Herman) who pretty much echoed the prevailing fear of the day. It was clear from the tone of the questions that there was a ton of miscommunication going on between Metropolitan Edison and the NRC and there was enough blame to go around. But the reporters did a pretty good job of hammering away, even if they didn't get anything concrete. That would all have to wait for the hearings.

"Relief and a measure of optimism prevail this morning near the site of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials are still convinced that the size of the large gas bubble inside the reactor has diminished. And as the bubble gets smaller so does the threat of a dangerous core meltdown." - Diane Sawyer, report.

The Seventh Day of the crisis. Calm was slowly starting to return, but the Hydrogen bubble is still a mystery. Schools within a five mile radius are opening and there was cautious optimism. Even the news was quietly removing the crisis to the back pages. The question was what was the extent of damage to the reactor and if it would ever be re-opened.

And then the blame game started.

"Even though this has been the most serious accident that has occurred with a nuclear power plant in the twenty-five year history of commercial nuclear power, that as yet, not only have no lives been lost in this case, but in the entire history of nuclear . . .of commercial nuclear power, there have been no lives lost, and that is unique for new technology." - James Schlesinger

Strange comfort to the people engaged in the war of nerves, living on the perimeter of Three Mile Island. Even though the bubble was dissipating, there was now the question of Hydrogen buildup as the result. A continuation of conflicting reports from two agencies, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Metropolitan Edison. Despite Jimmy Carter's assurances the day before, thousands of people within a twenty mile radius of the damaged nuclear reactor were still leaving their homes out of fear what may or may not happen.

(Jimmy Carter inspecting the Three Mile Island Nuclear Facility -April 1)

Day Five. President Carter visited the damaged facility and issued a statement saying, even though the situation was slowly getting under control, it was still days before damage assessment would begin. He also pledged a revamping of the status of nuclear power plant faclities, attempting to assuage fears and protests which sprang up all over the country the previous few days.

(The Control Room at Three Mile Island - March, 1979)

"I think we're into something that . . that is a different ballgame than we'd expected. I don't think that I've seen anything that indicates that we're not really prepared to handle what we've found ourselves involved in. And to date, we have not given excessive exposure to any member of the public" - Metropolitan Edison spokesman Jack Herbine.

Slowly the danger was being contained, but everyone was still pretty much in the dark as to what was happening and what could happen and how long this would go on for. As Herbine said; it was a whole different ballgame.

"The problem at the Three Mile Island Nuclear power plant has grown more serious, and the government says there is a theoretical possibility of meltdown of the nuclear core" NBC News report

On Day Three the picture got a bit different. Words like "Meltdown", "China Syndrome" and "evacuation" were being bandied around as the news from Three Mile Island got worse and worse. Attempts to stop the leaks of radiation in the atmosphere were fruitless, and the cooling process wasn't going as hoped - damage had already been detected at the core, and for the first time there was real fear of a complete meltdown of the system. Of course, the press were being blamed by the spin-meisters for triggering the panic, and officials were still telling everyone publicly there was nothing to worry about and all would get back to normal "soon". Nevertheless, the Governors office advised Pregnant mothers and mothers of pre-school children to get out if they lived within a five mile radius of the plant. Clearly, the spin and the attempted gloss-overs weren't working.

(Control Room for Reactor 2 - Three Mile Island -1979)

Day Two. The picture was not as rosy as originally planned. Radiation was continuing to leak into the atmosphere and things were a lot more serious than previously thought. Explanations were slow in coming. Original estimates were wrong and officials were hard pressed to put any positive spin on what was shaping up to being a major disaster.