Three Mile Island
Regular price
€28.50
1970s
20th century
A01=J. Samuel Walker
account of events
american history
Author_J. Samuel Walker
Category=NHK
Category=RNK
cause and effect
commercial energy
emergency
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
historical nonfiction
history buffs
human drama
long term health effects
meltdown
modern history
nuclear accident
nuclear crisis
nuclear power
nuclear power plant
nuclear regulatory commission
pennsylvania
political issues
radiation
radiation poisoning
scientists
social issues
suspenseful
technical issues
three mile island
true story
white house
Product details
- ISBN 9780520246836
- Weight: 408g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 10 Jan 2006
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Twenty-five years ago, Hollywood released "The China Syndrome", featuring Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas as a TV news crew who witness what appears to be a serious accident at a nuclear power plant. In a spectacular coincidence, on March 28, 1979, less than two weeks after the movie came out, the worst accident in the history of commercial nuclear power in the United States occurred at Three Mile Island. For five days, the citizens of central Pennsylvania and the entire world, amid growing alarm, followed the efforts of authorities to prevent the crippled plant from spewing dangerous quantities of radiation into the environment. This book is the first comprehensive account of the causes, context, and consequences of the Three Mile Island crisis. In gripping prose, J. Samuel Walker captures the high human drama surrounding the accident, sets it in the context of the heated debate over nuclear power in the seventies, and analyzes the social, technical, and political issues it raised. His superb account of those frightening and confusing days will clear up misconceptions held to this day about Three Mile Island.
The heart of Walker's suspenseful narrative is a moment-by-moment account of the accident itself, in which he brings to life the players who dealt with the emergency: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the state of Pennsylvania, the White House, and a cast of scientists and reporters. He also looks at the aftermath of the accident on the surrounding area, including studies of its long-term health effects on the population, providing a fascinating window onto the politics of nuclear power and an authoritative account of a critical event in recent American history.
J. Samuel Walker is the historian of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. His previous books include Permissible Dose: A History of Radiation Protection in the Twentieth Century (California, 2000) and Containing the Atom: Nuclear Regulation in a Changing Environment, 1963-1971 (California, 1992).
