In 1977 GSIEN was first to provide an explanation of the causes and consequences of the Three Mile Island accident, while the authorities tried to play-down the incident, however GSIEN came to prominence at the time of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster when the press and public found that their independent information helped to compensate for the shortcomings in the official information. They subsequently became widely recognised after many of their members contributed to various overseas projects.