Three Mile Island – March 28, 1979

It was an early and sunny spring day in the Susquehanna River Valley 40 years ago. What possibly could go wrong?

I had been in Harrisburg all of five weeks on March 28, 1979, covering the statehouse for Ottaway Newspapers.

When I came to work in the Capitol newsroom that morning, I heard local media reports of a problem at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant.

By mid-morning, the press corps was assembled in the Governor’s Reception Room to hear Lt. Gov. William Scranton, 3d announce there has been an incident at TMI but “there is and was no danger to public health and safety.”

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