2004-03-28

Happy anniversary, baby fu-fu's!

What anniversary you say? Why it's the 25th anniversary of the US's worst nuclear meltdown in history.

That's right! Central Pennsylvania's crowned jewel along the snaking Susquehanna River, Three Mile Island.

Here's a little background on how it played out for all you physicists out there. 32,000 gallons of radioactive, superheated water spilled through a leaky valve into a reactor, melting about 20,000 nuclear rods.

That's why they call it a meltdown, sweet stuff.

Several hours passed before plant officials told local authorities about the shutdown. At first they said the situation was under control. Then they said the reactor was still unstable and that radiation was released into the surrounding community.

Ha ha! Way to save face!

They advised pregnant women and pre-school children to evacuate.

I was four years old, living about 15 miles from the radioactive meltdown that used to be a nuclear plant. So it was an exciting day!

My mom grabbed me and my then two-year old sister. We booked it up to her family's in Boston and stayed for a week. My dad remained in central Pennsylvania and went to work.

Good ole pops. Always providing.

I later learned, well, everything I know now, but also that our evacuation was futile. By the time the public was warned, all radioactive damage would have already occurred. Those insidious little rays are speedy!

Government scientists (THERE'S a highly suspicious title) said that the 636,000 people living within 20 miles of the plant got only minor radiation doses. At the same time, Walter Cronkite went on the evening news announcing:

We face the considerable uncertainties and dangers of the worst nuclear power plant accident of the atomic age. And the horror tonight is that it could get much worse.

Little did we know that in 1986 Chernobyl would beat us hands down with a reactor explosion and a 10-day radioactive fire.

Hello to my sisters and brothers in Chernobyl! Our web-footed kids can be pen-pals.

In conclusion, here's a two headed calf. No, a calf's head. Um, calves heads. Calf's heads, that's it:

"Local resident Annie Meyers holds a two-headed calf that was stillborn on her family farm near the Three Mile Island Plant two years after the accident."