The Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident
The Three Mile Island nuclear reactor meltdown accident is one of the most notable commercial nuclear power station reactor accidents to have occurred in the United States (Walker, 2004). Metropolitan Edison Co. operated the plant. On 28th March 1978, one of the nuclear reactors in the plant (TMI-2) suffered a partial meltdown, resulting in the emission of mild radioactive elements into the environment (Walker, 2004). What ensued was legal action by PANE, trying to stop the reopening of the nuclear plant stating that it would result to “severe psychological trauma to residents of nearby towns” (Gary & Rosen, 2003). The reopening of the plant would have had significant effects on the area resident’s psychological health, wellbeing, and the area community’s cohesiveness and stability.
Reopening the plant would have led to the area residents having to live with trauma and fear. Immediately after the incident, the federal government ordered the evacuation of all children and pregnant women from within a 5 mile radius of the Three Mile Island Facility. A day later, the federal government increased the radius to 20 miles (Osif, Baratta & Conkling, 2004). More than 140,000 people had to vacate their homes temporarily because of the incident. This had an impact on the area resident’s state of psychological health. Even after they had moved back from the voluntary evacuation, they had to live in constant fear that there might be another nuclear meltdown. They also had feared that the radioactive elements released into the environment could have an impact on their health (Gray & Rosen, 2004). The people, consequently, had to live with the fear that their health and wellbeing was under threat from nuclear emissions and a probable meltdown.
The psychological fear and trauma, because of the accident had a direct impact on the