 Today is the 47th anniversary of the USA’s worst nuclear disaster. Nina Babiarz was there. |
By Nina Babiarz
Every anniversary of the Three-Mile Island (TMI) meltdown always put me in a reflective mood. It was so much more than just that moment the meltdown occurred at 4 am in middle of the night. The ensuing consequences were varied and numerous.
Three Mile Island became a page of history; a crushed promise of virtually limitless nuclear power that nixed the need for fossil fuels and that ultimately derailed that nuclear momentum. Experiencing those consequences is a different story. If you were ever evacuated by a California fire,you’re aware of how abrupt everything becomes all at once; EVERTHING.
Some of you may be aware of my few evacuation comments stated on the 40 th anniversary of Three-Mile Island at an Edison CEP (Community Enragement Panel) meeting fortuitously scheduled on that same day… here’s the rest of the story.
In 1979 I was an engineering/construction news reporter for McGraw-Hill Publishing in Pittsburgh PA. However, the week of TMI , I was in a reporter training session in Buffalo NY with other McGraw-Hill reporters from various parts of the country.
When we showed up for class the morning of March 28, 1979 our Instructor announced the breaking news of TMI! Shocking! What was a nuclear meltdown anyway?? He further explained that confusion ensued regarding evacuation directions… and we all may have trouble getting home. What?! Of course everyone’s reaction was to call home immediately. Not so fast! Don’t forget, these were still the days of no cell phones. We did have plenty of land lines and pay phones; all of which were SO overloaded your receiver only echoed ‘No dial tone’ and an emergency warning stating ‘No calls out!.”
Really Scary !!
Packed and ready at the Buffalo airport, a flight home became the luck of the draw. I was on one of the last out waiting for hours with the reporter from Wisconsin who passed the time by giving me a deep history of how cheese is made… When I finally got back to Pittsburgh late that night, any clear direction regarding as to who should evacuate and to where, was about as clear as mud. Why? Because during the meltdown, Met-Ed officials told Lt. Governor Scranton on March 28 th that “everything is under control;” and that no radiation had been detected off-site. Based on Met-Ed assurances, Scranton then also assured the public that there was “no danger to public health.”
This was false: Significant radioactive material had already been released and Met-Ed knew it. After learning that Met-Ed had withheld information about those radiation releases, Lt. Gov. Scranton had to retract his previous statement that same afternoon, stating the situation was “more complex” than the company first led us to believe. Deeply disturbing…
That little lie resulted in a huge shift in the evacuation radius. Initially, the 5-mile evacuation radius Met-Ed had previously recommended turned into a 25-mile radius. That expanded radius went from 11,000 in the immediate area of the tiny Borough of Middleton PA to then include about 140,000 people that then included the state capital of Harrisburg.
And hence more confusion ensued. We were gasping for logical deductions. If our state capital was being evacuated and all the elected official and agency folks went too, who then would be directing evacuation notifications to the still-awaiting general public -US!? Who could help but wonder when that state capital evacuation widened?
Also, since Harrisburg is practically smack in the middle of the state, those in the east side of the state like Philadelphia wondered if they should head north to New York or south to Virginia while those of us in the far west of PA considered west to Ohio or south to West Virgina to be our best bet. Our family temporarily favored West Virginia since my Mom came from a village on the state line and our step-father originally came from the southern part of that state. At least we’d be with extended family.
Then came yet another startling surprise.
On March 30, Met-Ed intentionally vented radioactive gas from the plant without informing the Governor’s office in advance, exacerbating the panic and complicating the assessment of whether a larger evacuation was now necessary. Shocking!
The news became consumed with facts about radiation exposure. What an education by the seat of our pants! That’s when we all became a little more informed about a topic none of us never had previously considered; that an invisible entity called radiation could actually kill you! REALLY frightening to hear about this for the very first time! It made one paranoid just to breathe…
While it was later revealed that Met-Ed had been falsifying primary-coolant leak rate data for months prior to the accident to avoid shutting down the reactor, and that they pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to this in 1984, that revelation did nothing for those of us in a panic at the time. I remember that the dust only seemed to settle once the lies of Med-Ed had finally ceased and the big boys from the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) came in to try and straighten out the mess. We hung tight in our homes just hoping we were making the right decision. Crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. What a way to go!
Afterwards, I was promoted to Government Reporter with McGraw-Hill. I had more great training by McGraw-Hill on how to follow the money in all government funded projects. My sources ranged from Federal like the Army Corps of Engineers down to the school districts, townships and boroughs. In 1984 McGraw-Hill tapped me to relocate to Orange County to cover the building boom of Southern California. It was fascinating work and I loved applying my reporter skills to holding public agencies accountable when they are spending the public’s hard-earned tax dollars.
Suffice to say, Three-Mile Island is where and how I found my passion for protecting the public‘s safety at San Onofre. Especially considering that Edison’s corporate culture that still to this day reflects a strange relationship with the Truth.
Like San Onofre, TMI too is still home to millions of pounds of radioactive nuclear waste. Ours just happens to be buried a mere 108’ from the mighty Pacific with what is now termed as ‘accelerated sea level rise.’
Why be concerned about a tsunami at San Onofre?
Regardless of Edison’s denials, there’s plenty of good reason to wonder about the unanticipated at San Onofre and the awful potential for an evacuation.
San Onofre is and has been for quite sometime in a USGS Tsunami Inundation Zone. Public Watchdogs, has been expressing deep concern for the public’s safety regarding the 3.6 Million pounds of deadly radioactive nuclear waste stored on the beach, 108 feet from the Pacific Ocean, in a USGS designated tsunami inundation zone. These tsunami concerns have fallen on the deft ears of Edison’s denial and neglect to prepare.
Why do I say that?
On September 7, 2023, Public Watchdogs’ Charles Langley, Gary Headrick of San Clemente Green along with nuclear expert Paul Blanch met with Southern California Edison (SCE) on these very tsunami and evacuation concerns. Edison’s concluding response was disappointing at best indicating that they were ‘thinking about renting the appropriate equipment’… That sounds like the exact same neglectful behavior the NRC dinged Edison with violations of federal law; not the right equipment and personnel not trained on the right equipment! Well these folks never learn?! Or will we be subject to the consequences of their continued bad behavior. After all, the site at San Onofre houses 73 steel-lined silos filled with canisters of deadly, radioactive nuclear waste that weigh more than 100,000 pounds each previously scratched and gouged in Edison’s two (2) failed and flawed downloading accidents in July and August of 2018.
Although a recent small tsunami did not represent a safety threat, Public Watchdogs’ analysts have warned that a larger tsunami could breach the seawall and inundate the radioactive nuclear waste dump’s partially below-ground silos with saltwater and mud, which could block the cooling system. Just take a glance at what went out at Fukushima.
But you’re in luck!
According to the California Earthquake Alliance, an earthquake in our state could happen and second of any day. What’s more, this is officially California’s 2026 Tsunami Preparedness Week (March 21 – 29). Their site also displays various tips to prepare now and features tsunami maps of San Onofre that you can see here for yourself.
I hope my story from the past helps to prepare you and your loved ones for the significant challenges we just might find in our future.