nuclear device” in the Rajasthan Desert, 100 miles from the border with Pakistan. The nuclear monopoly of the five powers had been broken, and the prospect for further proliferation was now very real.18
It was now eminently clear that a strong link—if that link was sought—existed between “peaceful nuclear power” and a nuclear weapon. There was only one atom; and the same nuclear plant that produced electricity could also produce plutonium in its spent fuel, which could be used as a weapons fuel. That was the way the Indians had done it. Moreover, an enrichment facility that turned out nuclear fuel with the 3 percent to 5 percent concentration required for a reactor could keep enriching the uranium over and over until it reached an 80 percent or 90 percent concentration of U-235. That was weapons-grade uranium, and out of that could be made an atomic bomb.
Influential scientists and members of the foreign-policy community in the United States and other countries began to question the promotion of nuclear power—not on grounds of safety, but because of the risks of proliferation. During World War II, Harvard chemistry professor George Kistiakowsky, known as “Kisty,” had been one of the chief designers of the atomic bomb at the secret Los Alamos laboratory. Later he was the White House science adviser to President Eisenhower. But now, in 1977, troubled by second thoughts, he said, “We must hold back on great expansion of nuclear power until the world gets better. It’s just too damn risky right now.”19
THREE MILE ISLAND
Whatever their bitter differences, on one thing proponents and opponents of nuclear power could absolutely agree: The core of an operating reactor had to be kept “constantly supplied with copious amounts of coolant to dissipate the heat produced by fission.” Otherwise, something terrible could happen.
And that nightmare scenario suddenly seemed about to become a reality—in the predawn hours of March 28, 1979, in Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, on the Susquehanna River, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The chain reaction of events started at 4:00 a.m. with a shutdown in the feedwater pumps that were meant to keep the reactor core cool. Initially the problems were dismissed as a “normal aberration.” Then a whole series of further malfunctions and operator errors ensued, one piling on top of the next. At one point, the instrumentation misled the operators into thinking that there was too much water in the cooling system, instead of too little. They turned off the emergency cooling system and shut down the pumps that were circulating water, which eliminated their ability to remove heat from the reactor core. All this generated a sequence of events that melted part of the reactor’s core, forced a complete shutdown of the plant, and led to a minor release of radioactive steam. It also ignited fears of a major radioactive leak and a total meltdown .20
The result was immediate panic. “Nuclear Nightmare” was the cover of Time magazine. The New York Post headlined “Nuclear Leak Goes Out of Control.” Thousands of people fled their homes; residents over a wide area were instructed to keep their windows tightly shut and turn off air conditioners to prevent intake of contaminated air. Almost a million people were told to prepare for immediate evacuation.
A few days after the accident, Jimmy Carter, the nuclear engineer–turned–president, arrived by helicopter at Three Mile Island. He viewed the crippled reactor from a school bus and then, along with his wife, Roslynn, toured the plant’s control room with his shoes garbed in yellow plastic booties. The president promised to “be personally responsible for informing the American people” about the accident. Fears were further stoked by the coincidental release of a motion picture, The China Syndrome, about a nuclear meltdown. The film and its message became a national sensation, helping to feed the panic.21
THE AFTERMATH
The accident at Three Mile Island riveted the world. It also led to an overhaul of safety management, including much greater focus on human factors and preventing operator errors. Who better to provide understanding of what had gone wrong and what needed to be done than Admiral Hyman Rickover ? Jimmy Carter asked his old boss to help him with the investigation.
Rickover wrote a lengthy private letter to the president “to put the issue in perspective as I see it based on my own experience.” In a letter of lasting value for its insight into disasters, Rickover wrote:Investigations of catastrophic accidents involving man-made devices often show that:1. The accident resulted from a series