They reverberate to this day. No new nuclear plants have been ordered since 1973. A drop in energy use made them unnecessary. Enhancements introduced after Three Mile Island, like requiring more and better-trained plant operators, have made nuclear power more expensive than coal and hydroelectric power. Today, white steam billows from the twin hourglass-shaped cooling towers of TMI's only functioning unit.
Operators say it is a model of efficiency and safety.
At the time of the accident, the focus was on the people of central Pennsylvania. Robert Reid, mayor of Middletown at the time, recalls repeatedly trying but failing to get through to someone in the crippled power plant. Alarmed, he called TMI's corporate owners in New Jersey. An official there assured him that no radiation had escaped into the air. But radioactive gas had, indeed, been released to relieve pressure building up inside.