This 11-minute video shows students how attitudes towards nuclear energy have changed since the 1950s, when its arrival was greeted with mass acclaim and its prospects seemed unlimited. The video clarifies why this optimism soured quickly when America experienced its first major nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in 1979, followed by the meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986. The nuclear industry gradually recovered, but was halted in 2011 following the Fukushima meltdown in Japan. In its discussion of the recent re-emergence of nuclear power as a means of mitigating climate change, the video sets up a classroom discussion about whether nuclear power’s benefits outweigh its costs.
Nuclear Meltdowns Raised Fears, but Growing Energy Needs May Outweigh Them
Catastrophic accidents at power plants have heightened fears about the safety of nuclear energy, but environmentalists and others are giving it renewed attention as a way to fight global warming.
In March of 1979, the news of an accident at the nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania sent reporters rushing to the scene, while some 140,000 residents eventually fled from surrounding towns in fear and confusion.
The worst-case scenario was already familiar to Americans, thanks to Hollywood. It had recently released “The China Syndrome,” a thriller about an accident at a nuclear plant, and the film was playing in theaters across the country. Many viewers found it easy to conflate the disaster unfolding on the big screen with the real one taking place in Pennsylvania Dutch country.
Fortunately, the thing most feared – a complete meltdown of the reactor core and a massive release of radiation – never happened in the movie or at Three Mile Island.
But there were consequences. The accident was the worst at a commercial nuclear plant in U.S. history. It showed how quickly America’s nuclear dream could turn into nightmare. That lesson stuck. Scores of reactors were cancelled, and the nuclear industry in America fell into something like cold storage.
The dream, however, never really died. You might be surprised who’s taken up that cause today. The question is whether America is ready to embrace a nuclear future?
Related: Three Mile Island, and Nuclear Hopes and Fears by Clyde Haberman
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- Lesson plan 1: Nuclear Power: From Three Mile Island to Fukushima
- Read transcript
- Producer: Kit R. Roane
- Update Producers: Sianne Garlick
- Update Producers: Sandra McDaniel
- Update Editor: Heru Muharrar