Three Mile Island, 30 Years Later

Thirty years ago today, there was an accident at the Unit 2 reactor at Three Mile Island. It is (and hopefully will forever be) known as the worst nuclear power plant accident in the nation's history.

Even so, no one was killed, and evidence of increased health problems is, at best, sketchy. People even today live right in the shadow of those cooling towers, and fish swim freely in the river around the plant (Yes, it's called Three Mile Island because it's on an island in the middle of the Susquehanna River).

The lessons learned from the accident, combined with the later lessons of Chernobyl, contribute today to an impressive safety record among nuclear plants in the U.S. We see now that nuclear power, in addition to being safe and relatively clean, is viable and affordable. Hopefully our nation will embrace nuclear power as a 21st-century option to unleash us from our dependency on foreign fuels.