Once the immediate danger posed by the accident passed, Three Mile Island became grist for talk show hosts and comedy troupes. It didn't take long for the accident at Three Mile Island to become part of the American experience. To knit itself into the fabric of the nation's popular culture. If the core is exposed for whatever reason, the fuel heats beyond core heat tolerance in a matter of minutes.
Nothing can stop it.
And it melts right down through the bottom of the plant, theoretically, to China. But of course as soon as it hits ground water it blasts into the atmosphere and sends out clouds of radioactivity. The number of people killed would depend on which way the wind is blowing, render an area the size of Pennsylvania permanently uninhabitable, not to mention the cancer that would show up later. The scenario played out in the movie was so similar to the reality of Three Mile Island that in retrospect the feature film is often described as documentary-like. We have a serious condition.