• Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    8 months ago

    Most of what the Three Mile Island accident did was use up half the power plant. Problem is it spooked a lot of folks, partially due to unfortunate timing. The movie The China Syndrome had recently come out, and a lot of people expected it to go as bad as that.

    It really didn’t help when the Soviets blew the roof off a reactor seven years later.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      If the US government hadn’t classified the event, the reactor that they intentionally melted down in the late 50s/early 60s in the TVA would have been proof that China Syndrome was based on bad math. That incident is why the Army Corps of Engineers lost their nuclear power program. Didn’t anyone else wonder why the Army Corps of Engineers built a bunch of nuclear reactors in the 50s and 60s for the TVA, and then they never worked on nuclear power again? The Navy still has their nuclear power program…

        • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          8 months ago

          General public wouldn’t have freaked out if the government hadn’t been lying at worst, and misrepresenting data at best, about a lot of things regarding nuclear technology.