Crisis Contained: The Department of Energy at Three Mile Island (SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS)

“What escaped at Three Mile Island was not only radiation, but, more importantly for the nuclear power industry, public confi­dence in technology and technocracy,” report Cantelon and Wil­liams in their detailed account of the response of the Department of Energy to America’s worst civilian nuclear power accident.

What happened at Three Mile Island was a technological failure of monstrous proportions. “Yet,” the authors contend, “the serious extent of the accident was caused by human error: technocrats blundered, lost control of technology, and, refusing to admit it,gave confusing, inconsistent, and jargon-laden explanations.” There was a welter of information and misinformation. To sift out the truth that would enable them to write the history of this contem­porary event, Cantelon and Williams relied on unpublished archi­val materials—including logs of scientists and government officials—on oral interviews with participants, and on reports of other government agencies. The result is a significant history, one that shows how scientists and politicians responded to the un­believable and unexpected as they tried to deal with a highly tech­nical event in the glare of television lights and under the inquisitive and fearful eyes of the public.

The danger was never real, yet for the nation and certainly for the immediate community around Three Mile Island, risk per­ceived was risk endured. Many of the residents of what became a “war zone” will never be the same, though radiation never touched them. Imagination and unconscious fears were far more important than any accurate perception of risk after a Nuclear Regulatory Commission official usedthe term meltdown at a Friday afternoon news conference.

Philip L. Cantelon is President of History Associates, Incorpo­rated, Gaithersburg, Maryland. He serves on the Board of Editors of The Public Historian. He was Fulbright Professor of American Civilization at Kyushu National University and Seinan Gakuin Uni­versity in Japan.

Robert C. Williams is Professor of History and Dean of Univer­sity College at Washington University, St. Louis. He has published books and articles on such diverse topics as Russian émigré artists, linear algebra, Soviet art, and Russian political history.

Jack M. Holl is Acting Chief Historian for the Department of Energy.