MAIN TITLE Arts and Entertainment
Article Title The China Syndrome
The Three Mile Island accident was the most significant in the history of the American commercial nuclear power generating industry.
Living in Pennsylvania at the time of the accident, I remember it as if it was yesterday.
It began on Wednesday,the 28th of March 1979.It took local, state and federal officals
five days to decide what to do with the residents of local communities.
But on March
16th of that same year,just 12 days before this incident at Three Mile Island in
Pennsylvania, a new movie "The China Syndrome"
had benn realised.
The China Syndrome
is a thriller film which tells the story of a reporter and cameraman who discover
safety coverups at a nuclear power plant. It stars
Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael
Douglas, Scott Brady, James Hampton, Peter Donat, Richard Herd, and Wilford Brimley.
Basically the storyline of this movie is about a reporter who finds what appears
to be a cover-up of safety hazards at a nuclear power plant.
TV news reporter Kimberly
Wells (Fonda) and her cameraman Richard Adams (Douglas) visit the Ventana nuclear
power plant outside Los Angeles as part of a series of news reports on energy production.
While viewing the control room from an observation room, the plant goes through a
reactor SCRAM. Shift supervisor Jack Godell (Lemmon) notices what he believes to
be an unusual vibration during the SCRAM. Checking their gauges, the control room
staff finds that water levels in the reactor core have risen to high levels; they
begin opening relief valves in an effort to
prevent too much water from damaging
the plant.
Eventually Godell takes matter into his own hands and ends up dead after
being shot by members of the local swat team after he took over the control room.
The implication that the company's security people are willing to kill to silence
a whistleblower echoes allegations made about the death of Karen Silkwood, who died
in a 1974 automobile accident while on her way to meet with a reporter to disclose
nuclear power safety violations.
In the film, a physicist says that the China Syndrome
would render "an area the size of Pennsylvania" permanently uninhabitable. It resulted,
however, in no deaths or injuries to plant workers or members of the nearby community.
However, following the event, the number of reactors under construction declined
every year from 1980 to 1998. The TMI accident, along with the release of this movie,
had a psychological effect on the nation. Before the accident, 70 percent of the
general public approved of nuclear power. After it, support for nuclear power across
the country fell to about 50 percent, where it remained for decades.
About the Author
Andrew Conway is an avid author,writer and a classic movie buff. If you love watching movies or just listening to great music, then visit: http://www.ultimate-free-downloads.com