PENNSTATE
PPM Harrisburg
18 5 5
Vol. 23 No.lo
Campus Remembers TMI Accident
By Mary Lee Sehnable
Just south of the Penn State
Harrisburg campus, large pillars of white
steam pump steadily from the cooling
towers of Three Mile Island's Unit One
nuclear reactor. They can be seen for
miles.
Nearby, the cooling towers of what
was once the Unit Two reactor are quiet,
but the nuclear accident that took place
there ten years ago is still a source of
controversy and concern.
Television programs, panel
discussions, anti-nuclear demonstrations,
and a renewed interest by press from near
and far are planned to mark the tenth
anniversary of the accident, during which
a portion of the uranium fuel in the core
of,theiresetcw welted, cowing a buildup
of radioactivity in and around the plant.
WITF Television plans to air a .
series discussing the implications of the
accident, and on the campus of PSH .a
panel of researchers from PSH and Penn
State University Park will gather to
discuss various technical and
sociological aspects of the' accident.
Three Mile Island Alert, an anti-nuclear
group, will hold ceremonies at the State
Capitol and near the entrance to the
plant, and will distribute publications
addressing nuclear power and TMI.
By John Yagecic
A congressman spoke in the Gallery
lounge on March 27 as part of the GTE
Lectureship program on ethics in
technology.
Congressman Doug Walgren, a
member of the House Science, Space,
and Technology Committee, and
Chairman of the Subcommittee on
Science, Research, and Technology said
"the government's responsibility to do
the right thing is really the
responsibility of the individual to guide
the government.
"The political system we have allows
citizens to have extraordinary individual
influence," Waigren said.
During the lecture,Walgren also
spoke of the neutrality of technology.
Capital Times
Some people around PSII recalled
the controversy and confusion that
prevailed once information about the
accident became public.
"You almost had to have been an
intimate part of it to see the confusion
...the contradictory information," said
Dr. James D. South, who was the
Director of Student Affairs at the time,
and one of the last people to leave the
campus after an evacuation was ordered.
Walgren: citizens can guide govt hi-tech policies
Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg
Llt - ii ,I,JJW
The situation really began quietly,
South said. As he pulled into the
Dickenson College parking lot for a
meeting that morning a low key news
report gave only a hint of what was to
come. By the time he returned to PSH
that afternoon, South said, "things had
started to bubble."
Charles Aleksy, Supervisor of
Safety and Police Services for PSH, said
he was alerted at 11:30 a.m. that there
photo by John Yagecic
March 30, 1989
was a "problem" at TMI. Once an
additional notice to stand-by was
received, Aleksy said, the administration
decided to evacuate the campus, rather
than wait for a general evacuation notice.
One of the dangers during the
accident, Aleksy said, was that a
hydrogen bubble had formed in the
reactor. "They (officials at TMI) wanted
it to decrease, not burst," he said, since
bursting could cause a blow-up.
Sharon Camasi, presently a senior
majoring in Humaties/Business, said she
was scheduled to return to work ttt
Harrisburg Hospital on the night of the
accident, after a 3-month maternity
leave. "My husband didn't want me to
go," Camasi said, but she told him "If
we don't blow up we'll need the money."
Nevertheless, Camas; packed
clothes, savings bonds, birth certificates,'
and baby pictures, and left the bags ready
by the front door, just in case, and on
Sunday the family went to stay with
relatives in Erie
Workers in campus offices said
they were told not to leave the buildings.
"It seemed like an eternity," said Sandi,
in Business Services. She said she
received word that her childr'en were
being dismissed from school and being
taken to a designated area for pickup, but
when she was finally sent home from
Cont. on p. 2, see TMI Remembered
"Just as technology can create danger,
it can create a way around the danger,"
Walgren said.
"Science is like a genie that will get
out of the bottle regardless of who pulls
the cork," said Walgren.
Walgren referred to the development
of the atomic bomb as a demonstration
of two conflicting factions striving to
perfect the same technology.
"That knowledge, like any nuetral
entity, was not just amenable to the
Einsteins and the Oppenheimers,"
Walgren said.
"Had they not developed it, the bomb
would have been developed regardless,"
said Walgren.
Walgren blamed the federal deficit for
the lack of funds for research and
education in the science and technology
fields.