Three Mile Island, 1979

From The Bulletin (Philadelphia, PA), March 29, 1979.

Fearful of Roars, They Say

By William J. Storm
Of The Bulletin Staff

Harrisburg, Pa.-Yesterday's radiation leak at the Three Mile Island nuclear power station doesn't worry area residents half as much as the incidents they don't hear about.

From the people of Middletown in Dauphin County and those of Goldsboro in New York County, in the little, mostly rural communities that line both sides of the picturesque Susquehanna River, the fear of the unknown permeates most conversations about the power plant.

Fueled by rumor that runs as hot as the uranium-powered electrical generators, people tell of loud, rumbling roars from the island in the river, and assert with strong conviction--but no proof--that something is almost always wrong at what many of them view as a time bomb, a nuclear time bomb in their backyard.

Some people blame police and local officials for not telling them what's going on. However, local authorities express as much frustration as the populace, and complain that no one at Three Mile Island ever tells them anything.

"A lot of my friends won't even come down here to visit me, they are so afraid of the plant," said Julie Chubb, a 24-year-old widow who lives with her small son and teen-age sister in Middletown, about 2 1/2 miles from the plant.

The area is largely rural, a mixture of older homes on large plots and new tract homes in small subdivisions. . . .

"We never get any notice," Mrs. Stoner said. "Nobody knocks on your door and says what is happening, and nobody did today. But you can't worry about it. If anything happens, they're not going to get you out. Everybody within 25 miles will be dead."

The reason the police don't notify residents is because they're never informed as to what's happening at Three Mile Island, said George Miller, chief of Middletown's 14-member department.

"We were informed at 7:32 A.M. that there was an on-site emergency; that's all," Miller said. "We don't know what happened yet. The radio says it's (the leak) contained, but we don't know where we stand. If there is danger, we should know about it."

The low wind was blowing toward the west during yesterday's radiation leak, toward Goldsboro, a town of about 600. Goldsboro's mayor, Kenneth E. Myers, points out that his community is the closest to the island, about a quarter-mile away.

"But I haven't been apprised of anything," Myers complained. I was at my job at the state Department of Revenue. Someone heard it on the radio and told me. . . .

Benjamin Whitmer, who installs special asbestos at the generating plant and was there yesterday morning, wasn't certain of what was going on.

Whitmer, part of an outside contracting crew that has been working at Three Mile Island for about a month, said one of the woman security guards "looked rather glum" when he reported at 7 A.M. She told him they had had "a little trouble."

"They sat us in an auditorium until about 10:30 A.M.," said Whitmer, of Johnstown. "They checked us out for radiation--they didn't say why. Then they checked us out again. They told us to leave.

"My car was on the south parking lot. Before I drove away, they checked the car out thoroughly, inside and out. They kept checking the air, and saying, 'Everything is all right.'". . .

Jane Lee, a candidate for township commissioner in Fairview Township about five miles from the plant, said the community has no means of measuring radiation. . . .

"Last summer, I heard a terrible roar from the plant--far worse than a jet. Then a silence. And no explanation.

"We never found out what it was."