In March of 1979, the worst accident of the American nuclear power industry occurred inside the reactor of TMI 2, a brand-new power plant just outside Middletown, Pennsylvania. The operators knew immediately that the plant had to be shut down, due to leaking radiation, but it wasn't until years later that they - and the public - realized just how close they'd come to a full-scale disaster.

On this episode, we're getting into nuclear power in America, along with the energy crisis of the 1970s, an unusually well-informed President, hydrogen bubbles, airborne radioactivity, and exactly how much radiation the residents of central Pennsylvania might have been exposed to over the last week of March, 1979.

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Main sources for this episode include:

"Three Mile Island: The Inside Story", digital exhibit at the National Museum of American History, 2004

"Three Mile Island Accident" by C. Douglas for Backgrounder, 2022