On this episode of The Sofa King Podcast, we talk about the worst nuclear disaster on American soil, the incident at Three Mile Island. In March of 1979, there was a perfect storm of mechanical failure and human error that led to a partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The aftermath was much less deadly than Chernobyl, but it had a major effect on the future of nuclear power and the development of nuclear plants in America.

When a faulty cooling circuit caused the a spike in temperature, the reactor shut itself down as a safety measure. During this, a relief valve failed to close, but no light was installed to tell the crew this. Therefore, the fuel half way melted down before they could put coolant water back on it. The effects were that an unknown amount of radioactive material was released in to atmosphere. This created a dangerous hydrogen bubble that could have exploded and peppered the landscape with radioactive fallout, but luckily that didn’t happen.

So what was the end result of this would-be nuclear disaster? That remains unclear. The official reports by Pennsylvania and the federal government are that a small amount of radiation leaked, nobody died, and there wasn't enough free radiation to harm anyone. However, a whole lot of reports have come out since then saying the radiation was severe, it killed off scores of wildlife, and caused birth defects and still births. Which one is it? How did this one event change nuclear policy fir the US? Why did President Carter visit the failing Three Mile Island (like a boss!)? Was there a cover up? Listen, laugh, learn.