1. The China Syndrome: Three Mile Island and Nuclear Energy in the United States Ari Tepper History 285 Section 003

2. Growth Of Nuclear Power President Eisenhower Atoms for Peace delivered to UN General Assembly, 1953 Shippingport Atomic Power Station First full scale commercial plant Design borrowed heavily from US Navy More than 800 weapons test in US between 1946 and 1979

3. Three Mile Island (TMI) Pressurized Water Reactor 30 years of collective operating experience Only operating at full power for 40 days Rushed into service Human error compounded by bad designs Releases less than background levels Complex systems are prone to accidents, not limited to nuclear power generation No Evacuation Order Pregnant women and children under 5 within 50 miles 100,000 people left their homes anyways Cleanup cost over 1 billion USD

4. Industry Trends Slowdown of growth of demand by 1975 40% nuclear plants canceled before TMI Competitive Market Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA), 1978 Rising Costs and longer construction times TMI only exacerbated trends France, Germany, and UK Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant

5. Fears of the Future Cold War nuclear submarines carrying nuclear missiles Energy Concerns and Crises 1973 & 1979 Plant construction eventually recovered Societal acceptance but lacking personal acceptability Polls show increases in wanting plants, but decreases in wanting them near the poll takers Completed plants in PA would have made up 40% of grid USS Sam Rayburn c. 1964