Customer Reviews

The American Experience: Meltdown at Three Mile Island [VHS]

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This PBS Home Video presentation is riveting. It really puts you back in time to early 1979, when the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant in Pennsylvania survived the worst accident of its kind in U.S. history.

The behind-the-scenes footage within the plant itself (and in surrounding neighborhoods) is as good as having a time machine, with its settings focused on March 1979. We watch the near-tragedy unfold, step-by-step and day-by-day, including plentiful footage of Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh as he deals with the crisis at hand.

It's chilling and frightening (even today) to think of what MIGHT have occurred had the runaway nuclear reactor not been brought under control. And this video is the best way you could ever possibly re-live those numbing events.

Highly recommended.

I will always remember being a 15-year old living through this tragedy. This documentary conveys the facts as well as the fear that gripped Pennsylvania (and later the nation).
Many of the people who were there in 1979 are interviewed. Experts tell what happened, and why.
If you want to know what happened at Three Mile Island, this program is an excellent place to start.

The American Experience: Meltdown at Three Mile Island delivers an incredibly informative look at the events surrounding the Three Mile Island accident that took place in March 1979. I remember hearing about the incident and knowing it was pretty serious, but I was just a kid at the time, and Pennsylvania was a good distance away from my home in North Carolina. In my memory, it was just a close call, here and gone rather quickly. As I grew older, I got a better sense of just how potentially catastrophic the situation was at the time, but I can't say I ever learned very much about the details of the accident - until now. This 1999 documentary was, in a word, eye-opening, detailing the circumstances that led to the accident, the decisions that exacerbated the problem, and the alarmingly unprepared reaction of all concerned parties to what we now know was indeed a partial meltdown of a nuclear core. Behind-the-scenes footage from the time really conveys the chaos that defined the Three Mile Island accident - and it is almost as frightening as the accident itself.

This accident was actually a five-day ordeal that was and is disturbing on many levels, mainly because no one seemed to know what the hell they were doing - and communication between plant representatives and government agencies on all levels was, to put it quite lightly, exceedingly poor. This documentary takes you through the series of events characterizing these days - in both a technical and a public relations sense. You'll learn how a simple valve malfunction and plant engineers' misinterpretation of data from the #2 reactor almost resulted in a nuclear disaster; how obfuscation and contradictory statements by plant spokesmen sewed distrust among city and state officials (not to mention the public); how little authority the Nuclear Regulatory Commission actually had at that time in the construction and operation of nuclear plants; and how difficult it was for Pennsylvania governor Dick Thornburgh to get the information he needed in order to know whether or not to evacuate the surrounding areas (and how problematic such an evacuation protocol would have been). The control room at TMI had only two phones, which made it all but impossible for NRC officials and the men who designed the plant to reach anyone on-site directly. In the governor's office, Dick Thornburgh h had communication problems of his own. NRC officials were difficult to reach, and it took President Carter himself a good hour to get through to his office. Complicating matters for Thornburgh was the fact that expert opinion varied significantly, so much so that he ended up trusting the word of those there on the ground over the opinions of Washington experts. I can understand how Thornburgh struggled mightily over the question of evacuating the area (which included the state capital of Harrisburg) based on incomplete and contradictory information, but I have to question his slowness to act - by the fifth day of the crisis, some experts argued that the plant could actually explode at any moment, the effects of which would have been catastrophic. Clearly, the whole subject remains highly debatable today.

I know I have a much better understanding of the Three Mile Island accident after watching this fascinating documentary. It really does an amazing job covering all of the angles of the crisis, in human as well as technical terms. This was an event that never should have taken place, and one can easily see that catastrophe was narrowly averted despite a series of human failures and mistakes. Plant engineers misinterpreted a comparatively simple problem and brought about the crisis by a series of decisions that did much more harm than good. At the same time, the NRC and the federal government proved to be wholly unprepared and often completely stymied in terms of their reaction to the situation.

It's rare that one event can intricately involve so many different aspects of modern life - and even more rare that a one-hour documentary can touch upon so many of them in such a meaningful and instructive way. It's a pity this 1999 PBS video isn't available on DVD, especially since the issues addressed herein are no less important now than they were at the time of production.

great nova video with all the facts about the three mile island disaster. if you don't know all the facts, you will after this video! we watched it with our 2nd and 3rd grader and all learned a lot! we thought the movie gave the kids a good idea of what happened...this would be a good movie to have at home, or in your school or library. this movie has great footage of all the people who had to make decisions during this disaster: (govenor, mayor, scientists, president)and clearly shows the stresses that they were under. it held the kids attention for most of the film. they asked so many questions after the film that i'm off to find a 'chernobyl' movie so i can show them what happens in an actual 'meltdown'.

I lived in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania, a small town which was situated within the 10 mile range of Three Mile Island. I was 24 years old at the time. All the townspeople, near and far, were wondering what they would have to do to escape if a nuclear disaster occured. The documentary gives you the same intense feeling that I felt at that critical moment in time, and is excellent in how it delivered acurate detail of chilling events as each day passed by. I recommend this film and hope that it will teach many individuals of what can suddenly happen, without warning.

The video, made for the twentieth anniversary of the accident in 1999, is a comprehensive, accurate documentary of the events at Three Mile Island in late March of '79. Most of the particular incidents which contributed to the near-meltdown are discussed at some length. All of the major figures are interviewed and there is much "Before" & "After" (a figure such as the mayor of Middletown, PA, where Three Mile Island is located is shown in March of '79 & then re-interviewed for this documentary). It would have been interesting for there to have been an "after" interview with Pres Carter. I have to agree with the previous reviewer from VT that it is a great learning tool not just for kids but for everyone who needs to know more about the dangers of nuclear power. What is lacking in the documentary is an analysis of the after-affects of whatever radiation was released. Perhaps this was a deliberate ommission as the official studies have been contradictory and inconclusive. One has to sympathize with those who lived downwind of the plant as the effects may never be fully explored.

This film may be the most vital film to see since the energy companies are looking for the taxpayers in our country to subsidize the next generation of nuclear power plants now that the new Presidential administration is talking about alternative energy sources and the private power companies would love to get nuclear power plants paid for by the taxpayers. The advocates for nuclear power tell us that nuclear is safe and cheap. If this is true then why can't the power companies get the insurance industry to insure their plants? Why is the Price Anderson Act (which puts nuclear waste accident cleanup costs on the backs of the taxpayer) renewed every so many years to protect the nuclear power companies from paying for potential damages & accidents that could (and have in the past) occur?

SEE THIS FILM.... your life may depend on it!