What Movie May Have Helped Shape The Energy Policy Of This Nation

The Three Mile Island accident was the mostunusual vibration during the SCRAM. Checking their
significant in the history of the Americangauges, the control room staff finds that water
commercial nuclear power generating industry.levels in the reactor core have risen to high levels;
Living in Pennsylvania at the time of the accident,they begin opening relief valves in an effort to
I remember it as if it was yesterday. It began onprevent too much water from damaging the
Wednesday,the 28TH of March 1979.It took local,plant.
state and federal officals five days to decideEventually Godell takes matter into his own hands
what to do with the residents of localand ends up dead after being shot by members
communities.of the local swat team after he took over the
But on March 16th of that same year,just 12control room.
days before this incident at Three Mile Island inThe implication that the company's security people
Pennsylvania, a new movie "The China Syndrome"are willing to kill to silence a whistleblower echoes
had benn realised.allegations made about the death of Karen
The China Syndrome is a thriller film which tellsSilkwood, who died in a 1974 automobile accident
the story of a reporter and cameraman whowhile on her way to meet with a reporter to
discover safety coverups at a nuclear powerdisclose nuclear power safety violations.
plant. It stars Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, MichaelIn the film, a physicist says that the China
Douglas, Scott Brady, James Hampton, PeterSyndrome would render "an area the size of
Donat, Richard Herd, and Wilford Brimley.Pennsylvania" permanently uninhabitable. It
Basically the storyline of this movie is about aresulted, however, in no deaths or injuries to plant
reporter who finds what appears to be aworkers or members of the nearby community.
cover-up of safety hazards at a nuclear powerHowever, following the event, the number of
plant.reactors under construction declined every year
TV news reporter Kimberly Wells (Fonda) and herfrom 1980 to 1998. The TMI accident, along with
cameraman Richard Adams (Douglas) visit thethe release of this movie, had a psychological
Ventana nuclear power plant outside Los Angeleseffect on the nation. Before the accident, 70
as part of a series of news reports on energypercent of the general public approved of nuclear
production. While viewing the control room frompower. After it, support for nuclear power across
an observation room, the plant goes through athe country fell to about 50 percent, where it
reactor SCRAM. Shift supervisor Jack Godellremained for decades.
(Lemmon) notices what he believes to be an