I have been transfixed on CNN, listening when not watching as this nuclear tragedy unfolds after the horrendous earthquake and tsunami took their tolls first.
Flashbacks. watching scientists sit on a panel and discuss what to do with the hydrogen bubble inside the reactor--how to recombine the elements to become water so the bubble would not explode like a hydrogen bomb. Wait, that was 32 years ago, not today. Today we have seen hydrogen explosions at least 3 times, I've lost count.
Why did they both happen in March? March is MY month. I was born on 3/3, three is my magical number. M.Arch. is the degree I worked my whole life to get to fulfill the dream I had since I was 5 to become an architect. How dare these tragedies take place in MY month.
TMI took place at a very important time in my life. Mom had finally left my alcoholic, wife battering, abusive step-father. We lived within walking distance of school so I could walk home after track practice. We barely had money to cover utilities, once I had to use my part time after school paycheck to have heat. But we were happy. We lived in peace. I was about to graduate high school and had been accepted into an architecture program - I was one of 88 accepted out of 5000 applicants. Life was finally good.
1 pm, March 29, 1979: Principal came on the intercom at school (the principal NEVER came on the intercom) and said there had been an "incident" at Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant so since our school formed an X and many of us went outside to get to classes, we would be allowed an extra 5 minutes and were asked to stay indoors. All after school activities were canceled, there would be no late buses. Everyone was to go home after school at 2:45pm in Lancaster County at Penn Manor High School in Millersville, PA on March 29, 1979.
But wait. 2 pm the principal came back on the intercom (again?) and said the incident was not serious so we could go outside now, but activities had already been canceled and would be rescheduled. No after school practices that day, but they would resume the next day. We all looked around and mumbled no way were we going outside. We had all been on a field trip to Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant which was closer than TMI, so we knew the dangers. We all stayed indoors. Maybe a handful of 1600 students walked outside. Probably the stoners. It was 1979 after all.
I walked home to see mom packing our orange AMC Gremlin X. She motioned for me to go inside and pick up only the most important things I would not want to see lost forever. We were leaving. I packed a few clothes, mom had the photo albums already and the stuffed dog mom gave me as a baby. We took the canned food and anything that would last in a cooler for a day. We weren't rich, remember? Where are we going? To cousin Art's in Powhatan, VA. It was south, the opposite way of the wind blowing for the moment and far enough away to be safe from a meltdown. Mom was a nurse at the hospital, she knew a little about radiation poisoning, but neither of us knew a lot of details, we just knew it was better to be safe. The hospital told her she may not have a job when she came back. Mom said she may not be back and there may not be a hospital. We left. As we drove out of the small town of Millersville, a college town, we noticed other cars, packed full, kids sitting quietly, all leaving. We found out later they were likely the professors as many who evacuated early on were those with education enough to know to be afraid.
Education brought fear. Now there's a thought.
Survival means knowing when to be afraid, but education helps with what to do next. Education also brought skepticism and awareness of when things "didn't seem right". That happened a lot in the next 10 days.
