The term ‘China Syndrome’ is a, perhaps, exaggerated theory that the meltdown of a nuclear core would be an unstoppable, radioactive magma that would burn right through the earth, all the way to China.
CAPITAL ISLAND WHEAT MOVIE
Starring a young Michael Douglas, Jack Lemmon & Jane Fonda, it was the 1st movie to address the dangers of a nuclear power plant disaster. To top off this perfect storm, 12 days before the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, the movie ‘ The China Syndrome‘ was released. M odern advances in Science and Technology were fast-moving and not widely understood by the public, at the time. We had only landed a man on the moon less than 10 years before. Nuclear power plants were a relatively new technology and had only been around since the mid 1950s. Nuclear power was seen as the New Hope and a positive use for immensely powerful atomic energy. We worried how we would heat our homes in winter. People stood in gas lines for hours, until the station sold out of fuel. On the other hand, we were stuck in the Energy Crisis of the 1970s where an oil shortage created sky-high prices (around $3.50/ gallon in today’s dollars) for inefficient, gas guzzling cars. The images and dangers of a nuclear explosion were fresh in the public’s mind. Hollywood pumped out movies that played out nuclear war fears. The WWII atomic bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki happened just over 30 years before. People had been living 30 years with this continuous nuclear threat & fear. Some bought fallout shelters and buried them in their backyards like tornado shelters. Kids, like Bill and I, practiced ‘ Duck & Cover’ drills at school in case of nuclear attack. The United States was gripped in the Cold War with the Soviet Union (Russia, today) where both sides feared a nuclear attack that could lead to the end of the world. Only 10 miles from the state capital of Harrisburg, in the small town of Middletown, was the start of a nightmare that everyone feared.
The Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident Site captivated the attention of the nation & world. America held her breath as Pennsylvanians went through 5 confusing days of terror. The uranium core experienced a (partial) meltdown, the worst possible scenario.
Two million people were exposed to radiation contamination. In 1979, Three Mile Island (TMI) was the site of the worst nuclear power plant accident in US history, still to this day.
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