| -- End Ad Box ---> | | | | SCRAM. Shift supervisor Jack Godell |
| The Three Mile Island accident was the | | | | (Lemmon)notices what he believes to be an |
| mostsignificant in the history of the | | | | unusualvibration during the SCRAM. Checking their |
| Americancommercial nuclear power generating | | | | gauges,the control room staff finds that water |
| industry. | | | | levels inthe reactor core have risen to high levels; |
| Living in Pennsylvania at the time of theaccident, I | | | | theybegin opening relief valves in an effort |
| remember it as if it was yesterday. | | | | toprevent too much water from damaging the |
| It began on Wednesday,the 28TH of March | | | | plant. |
| 1979.Ittook local, state and federal officals five | | | | Eventually Godell takes matter into his own |
| daysto decide what to do with the residents of | | | | handsand ends up dead after being shot by |
| localcommunities. | | | | members ofthe local swat team after he took |
| But on March 16th of that same year,just 12 | | | | over the controlroom. |
| daysbefore this incident at Three Mile Island in | | | | The implication that the company's securitypeople |
| Pennsylvania, a new movie "The China | | | | are willing to kill to silence awhistleblower echoes |
| Syndrome"had benn realised. | | | | allegations made about thedeath of Karen |
| The China Syndrome is a thriller film which tellsthe | | | | Silkwood, who died in a 1974automobile accident |
| story of a reporter and cameraman who | | | | while on her way to meet witha reporter to |
| discoversafety coverups at a nuclear power plant. | | | | disclose nuclear power safetyviolations. |
| It stars | | | | In the film, a physicist says that the China |
| Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, Scott | | | | Syndrome would render "an area the size of |
| Brady, James Hampton, Peter Donat, Richard | | | | Pennsylvania" permanently uninhabitable. Itresulted, |
| Herd,and Wilford Brimley. | | | | however, in no deaths or injuries toplant workers |
| Basically the storyline of this movie is about | | | | or members of the nearby community. |
| areporter who finds what appears to be a | | | | However, following the event, the number |
| cover-upof safety hazards at a nuclear power | | | | ofreactors under construction declined every |
| plant. | | | | yearfrom 1980 to 1998. The TMI accident, along |
| TV news reporter Kimberly Wells (Fonda) and | | | | withthe release of this movie, had a |
| hercameraman Richard Adams (Douglas) visit the | | | | psychologicaleffect on the nation. Before the |
| Ventana nuclear power plant outside Los Angeles | | | | accident, 70percent of the general public approved |
| aspart of a series of news reports on | | | | of nuclearpower. After it, support for nuclear |
| energyproduction. While viewing the control room | | | | power acrossthe country fell to about 50 percent, |
| from anobservation room, the plant goes through | | | | where itremained for decades. |
| a reactor | | | | |