ML19341A514
| ML19341A514 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 07/31/1979 |
| From: | Gilinsky V NRC COMMISSION (OCM) |
| To: | Jamarl Cummings NRC OFFICE OF INSPECTOR & AUDITOR (OIA) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML19341A503 | List:
|
| References | |
| FOIA-80-516, REF-QA-99900400 NUDOCS 8101260113 | |
| Download: ML19341A514 (25) | |
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--s NUCLE' REGULATORY COMMISSION 3;NS f WASHINGTON. D. C. 20555 / 3,, ,/ July 31, 197.9 '5 OFFICE OF THE COMMIS$10NER NOTE TO JAMES CUMMINGS, DIRECTOR, OIA
SUBJECT:
MICIIELSON REPORT - EVENTS AND LEVELS OF REVIEW IIow does this report square with the recent B&W testimony before the Presidential TMI Commission? v G (.. <) </ Victor Gilinsky e f 4 9
1 dg f= uta /m 'e UNITED STATES ~, . LEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION E' c y.. - ,E W ASHING TON. D. C. 20555 \\...../ JUL 3 01979 MEMORAtiDUM FOR: Chairman Hendrie v<ommissioner Gilinsky Commissioner Kennedy Commissior.er Bradford Commissioner Ahearrie FROM: James J. Cummings, Director p gfgp Office of Inspector and Audito I%
SUBJECT:
MICHELS0fi REPORT - EVEtiTS AtlD cLS OF REVIEW 7-Pursuant to an agreement between the Office of Inspection and Enforcement and OIA, this Office conducted an investigation to establish the events and levels of review regarding the analysis of Carlyle Michelson's report, " Decay Heat Removal During a Very Small Break LOCA For a B&W 205 Fuel-Assemply PUR." Our Report of Investigation, which is enclosed, covers that time period from the fall of 1977 until the March 28, 1979, accident at Three Mile Island. /
Enclosure:
As stated ff,7 p/c% d k* '3 cc: L. Gossick '.h.[.,,,,,,,s., h r ',~ 4 ' M. Rogovin a .A.MA/% J. Fitzgerald \\ ,g C. Kammerer V. Stello 1 Jy.Ily. k /~ H. Denton A a ,tA ,/7,.LS M // LL/ t' y; / l s-Q ff,_3_,.de m.. s % :., i ys j j :l ,l!.<l.z..y Y ',W
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.;.:.:. s ' INVESTIGATION.- MICHELSON REP 0'RT' ~ ~ ~~ ' ~ -t, - +Y ~ " RE-L. n. ;..:c...;.. 5y.;'g;;,;,. I J.:. -n.~.: In accordance with your telephone request of August '1,1979, enclosed L . '.. ~ are the'.four (4) Enclosures that are ? '.. referenced in my. June 28' memorandum. .['- to file which summarizes"my June 25 intervie,w of A. J. Ignatonis.' -s -r,
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the nest few hours w2 sn.. car, chaos, and anger in-staff would... say w hether the tid was on for the night itcad. The Associited Press was about to report that e or not. hydmgen bubble inside the T.M.I. reactor core could Except for the newcomers like us, they looked hag. h explode. gard. nree Mile Island was a tough assignment: some Until now, the excitement at Three Mile Island had veterans said it was the toughest they'd ever had. come in surges. He day it all began, Wednesday, Somehow the TV reporters managed to stay crisp.but March 28, was dominated by the slowly leak.ing radia. the print people'showed the strain as they slogged tion, and the slowly leaking news that despite the deni-through one sixteen. hour day after another. They als of the utility, Metropolitan Edison, the accident posed a problem for capitol police guard Tom Chiri-was probably the most serious in the history of the, cos. With so many journalists crawling around, police American nuclear industry. RADIAT:oN SPREADS 10 had suspended the poIICy of checking credentials at htILES FRoM A-PLANT hitsilAP SITE was the headline the door. " Hey told me that if they don't look like over Tom O'Toole's story in the next morning's derelicts to let them in." Chiricos explained. "But a Washington Post. nursday the tension subsided; Met tot of them dolook like derelicts." Ed, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Penn-y sylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh agreed that the (@. im Panyard, a veteran Philadelphia Bullcrin 'I crisis was past, and editors who had staffed the acci-correspondent whose seniority and centrally dent quickly and heavily began wondering if they had located desk made him unofficial newsroom overreacted. Bryce Nelson's story in the Los Angcles V, host, had sent his family out of the area Thurs-Times carried a one-column head: PLANT STILL LEAKS day morning. "I work here," he said mattcr-of-RADIATION BUT PERIL SEEhts OVER. Friday a!! hell factly. "If I Icit I'd lose my job." Panyard was rum-broke loose, with two more uncontrolled bursts of ra-pled, tired, tense, and angry. He could cover a legista-di: tion, a recommended evacuation of preschool chil-tive session in his sleep, but this was unlike anything dren and pregnant women, and a mysterious bubble he had handled before. Sources seemed to speak a for - that some N.R.C. officials said might be hard to re-eign language, he said with a sigh. You asked theni a-move without risking a catastrophic meltdown. Friday j straight question about how much radiation is escaping night Waher Cronkite intoned that "the world has f and they answered with mumbo-jumbo about mil-never known a day quite like today," and The New J Iirems, manrems, rads, and picoeuries. Once you had York Times put four nree Mile Island stories on Sat-figured out what they were saying you discovered urday morning's front page, under this foreboding headline: U.s. AIDES SEE A RISK OF Ef ELTDOWN AT liarold Dcnton an the foh: Rcport. p%};g,{b,1g - PENNSYLVANIA NUCLEAR PLANT; htORE RADIOACTIVE y,.gg g.p.g, g g gW/;.pg.;E7C . g 'M E cAs is 3ELEAsED. By Saturday more than 300 out-of-gMs:_T,, A A Fl -pJh ', %@.4$ $ town reporters had converged on Harrisburg.
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,[/,j-kf 3c N.R.C. continued to disagree over the size of the bub- %{;g,u-5 34
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. m g,j. (A'q 4, news came out of Washington. N.R.C. Chairman Jo-A 'N Y'/)d!N,& MAj$p@y'f:'h > [hy seph Hendrie suggested that if simpler methods didn't Y f2 I h work, a twenty-mile-radius mass evacuation might be d 3w-M ,. W.8T' M h N TD{* y.c!.pck s a good idea before they really went after the bubble. j? N h.- ne N.R.C.'s man on the scene. Harold Denton. ., 3.L (- $hk ^[. /Q. k [r hadn't talked to reporters since the night before, when 3 .M y (V !,p d[f h,'"$c .,, A. 'i he had wryly admitted that thebubble was a "ne w twist" J.[ Yg.
- 3. f not envisioned in the commission-approved emergen-
). ? 47' : -:fQ ./ cy procedures. Crowded into a spare room in guber-M5] 2?31@Q.7,, 2 '.[U. ~ natorial press secretary Paul Critchlow's capitol office, T k
- 5. /ld* 7 U
I Y f 'l S : :.{ I Y M;;-O-{e, ? the N.R.C.'s public-information people had little to h 2 k f-/.. d i. - y % 7' add besides a list of the maneuvers Denton might try 'h V '- to get rid of the bubble. At 8 p.m. Saturday there were only~ twenty reporters ,y h .;?,y..K in the capitol newsroom, most of them complaining to I h 'i N-d [ dig N Y \\ ',I h-gk each other that Critchlo+was unreachable and that his a g ,f- ' ), &v ff, j ~ 'l Pcter Af. Sandman traches Journalism and public relations at ,y f, <3 Cool Co!!cge. Rutgers University, speciali:ing in environ-m ;..+.}g..,. a}}.} &r-p.q R -;g,, f,. ". f) mental communications. Afary Paden. formerly a reporter W, WQ.*,//. h*'.j.- y.dr;y for the MidJ!ctou n (N.Y.) Times.IIerald. Record, is an edi. .y-(3 \\ tor at the Coustcau Socicty. Aiary Ann Gri$n and Greg Afiles
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[ up with the right follow-up question to tell who was ly-It was four hours before S nday, April I, and the ing. "We've been given complete misinformation and A.P.'s report that the bub - could esplode was about 1 e I to move out of Washin -
- n. To many reporters in liar-
) conflicting statements from the N.R.C. here, the risburg it would IS ook like an ill-conceived April [ N.R.C. in Washington, the governor's office, and the utility," Panyard said. "Here is no doubt that the sit-Fools' joke. Afosi wspaper readers would never see uation is dangerous, but how dangerous is the ques-the story, for th icxt few hours of journalistic frenzy tion. I'm concerned, and I think other reporters are, would force th A.P. to modify it well before deadline too." for Sunday's ate editions. But for Saturday night TV ~ Two reporters loosened up by hurling a frisbee the viewers are nd Ilarrisburg, and for reporters in the length of the newsroom, past a wall of framed por. capitol new room, the story would heighten fears dra-traits of past capitoicorrespondents-journalists from matically.; I would also duplicate in many essentials a en era when reporters didn't have to know about fuel more widely okcussed U.P.I. story of the day before. rods and hydrogen oxygen ratios to ask an intelligent which reported that an N.R.C. technical expert in question. A bulletin bo.'rd on the opposite wall bore a Washington had admitled that trying to reduce the message to out-of-town reporters, advising them that bubble could possibly cause a meltdown. U.P.I.'s bul-if they noticed the streets of IIarrisburg were dark and letin had provoked a near-panic in liarrisburg and had empty at night "this is not-repeat not-because of prompted a carefully worded N.R.C. release which, the accident at T.ht.I. nat's the way they always while acknowledging the possibility in forbiddingly ars."It was signed "the locals." technical terms, seemed to deny it.) I Other reporters passed the full refining their gallows he A.P.'s story Saturday night was a genuine ] humor: scoop, one of the few to come out of Three h!ile Is-IIershey, Pennsylvania;it melts in the ground, not land. Apart from this, it bore all the hallmarks of. in your hand. Three h!ile Island reporting during those first few bec-~~ I went to bed last night and turned out the lights-tic days..Tournalists were overtired and fearful. ' but the room didn't get dark. Sources and public-information people were hard to Weather report: It's partly cloudy out, with a 40 per-reach. When reached, they gave out conflicting sto-cent chance of survival. ries. And it turned out they wcre allguessing. The story begins in the A.P.'s Washington bureau, 4,cre tager to trusr him-ond gave him an honorary doctorate. where special energy writer Stan Benjamin had a tip C.4. h ::p" 2- %:';.p 7 from an N.R.C. source that the bubble was in trouble. $, r.. p.f. s.- M J P,.i.f,)w%.m;Z..M.;>, Mc, p.&~- danger m. leav.mg it alone because oxygen might well O' 2.-My.. cm . J. a .N - Not only was there danger in removing it; there was jj y.,.. - g & - w
- 4. s 2 g.
-c h k[; kD. 'hfx ../ Ci',%'; 2 .N .-~ IhhT-(( b f be sceping into the hydrogen, creating a mixture that ..,f.d[. could flame or explode. Benjamin called N.R.C. 6 ^ c$y . ? g. @ 3-Q* g g ' g# is:[ spokesman Frank Ingram. Is there oxygen in the bub- .W t ble? Yes. Could that produce an explosion? Yes. What r.-- s . -Q pd[:.b..h. ' h. would happen? Possibly it would cause a meltdown-k M a t,% 4 d.& m c more possibly it would blow the head off the reactor; .. ri J.". ..f! :}M.',][ M*h'.1'gh[S[f.; '. t3 7 certainly it would do damage. Ilow soon? h1aybe sev-b ? ; "&.i-% f, G rd j eral days. /*/S' i..st - '- =' - i ~ -:..,'.%.m. m. 1 Tic t.immg was crucial, but Ingram wouldn't be />t'l I - ~ '4 F. Y hk N^ ' N y [ '[j ' u ;J: #'t ~d.[ ' ) -" .$y pinned down. Den A.P. reporter Andy Schneider, on e [ < C.~' f h '. l, d ;;'W ]-g..", g. N...%);i ,p ~. loan from the Concord, New Ilampshire, bureau / where he had covered the reactor-siting controversy at ] '/ < Y-1 4* fh. M 'i' Seabrook, called a source.,t the N.R.C. "Two days," ~ ..,f j D I',Q ) i 77'-{(
- %( Q [N ' Q ' a-D, URGENT (WITil NUCLEAR) Tile NRC NOW s
,I the source said.
- s Benjamin filed an editor's advisory at 8:23 p.m.:
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I SAYS Tile GAS BUBBLE ATOP Tile NUCLEAR t 7f,m REACTOR AT TilREE hilLE ISLAND SilOWS fr -7 C ~H i >. gyp-' ' e SIGNS OF BECOh11NG POTENTIALLY EXPLO-s p)'m g [CQ,. l' SIVE. A STORY UPCOh11NG.... $. ~.*-w -w% i from Ingram " Benjamin recalls /'" "As soon as the advisory hit the wire. I got a call ~ - - 4 N . "'What have you .'h.', h.t[ -f '. ' Q.g/ A,
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'] '@' reg / llung that said the bubble is going to explode.' I read {. 'deM;X TtQWW5?W. """"~""'"y]"" M2 TA a'd -- Q '.: 2 7. j him the advisory and he said there was nothing wr ang e:, c..e... m <. w n. O m%.. O, o _w .-x m v.J 8
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g[M. - Ah ' wrote that it % hows signs of becoming potentially ex. 8 """' '" W'#'1'"' a t ~ plosive.' I qualified it three ways." The story that hit ""S""d"""'""""' N A " % E, *g* Q the radio wire at 8:50 used the same phrase. f.iU ' y ,' Q, . yid slw inquirer noted. A rnatter of days "## d"" ""' '"" h; & {h; h[ g[N[{d rn Lnon erwrc than Back in liarrisburg. Panyard paced the capitol news- ~ M b unpme rhe." room, shaking his head over a copy of the radio story. .h
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~,>;. Ih % "A.P. says the bubble i. unstable." he announced,, clestly upset by the news. In the founge next to the gr k' 1 newsroom. a TV set that nobody had been watching now carried CBS and NBC bulletins about the bubble. y. ge.' -C h. A-r - : ~ somehow sharpening the sense of imminent disaster. Someone called Lombardo's, where reporters were i,gg3: .g,, grabb ng a late dinner; they stufTed uneaten food into q 3@y,t*7Q ;@ doggie bags and rushed back to the capitol. About twenty dashed up three narrow flights of stairs to the
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g g governor's press office, demanding confirmation or de-g.g;p f.!g.h-nial. "They burst in." Critchlow recalls. "and said J V.I' d g F
- What the hell is going on? We want to know if we should get out of here.'" They weren't after a story; sive." But by now Denton was the only reliable source they wanted to know if they were in danger. Critchlow on the scene, the White Knight helicoptered in by the assured them there would be no explosion that night.
White 11ouse Friday at Governor Thornburgh's re--- By 9.02 Benjamin had filed a rewrite of Tim Pettit's quest, and most reporters believe<* him. ne A.P. fil-d - earlier A.P. story from liarrisburg, this time leading another story using all three time estimates. U.P.I. with the new information that he and Schneider had fired oft an advisory misleadingly telling editors that discovered. Once again Ingram called, listened to the Denton had said "there was no danger of a hydrogen story, and approved it. Five minu'es later he called a explosion." third time and asked Benjamin to read the story to A little after eleven Denton repeated his statement N.R.C. deputy director Edson Case. "Ingram said at a formal news conference with nornburgh in the again that it was okay. I asked Case if the story was governor's briefing room, this time before nearly 200 correct and he agreed. I confirmed that story three reporters and a dozen TV cameras. Thornburgh was times in addition to the original interview," Benjamin peeved at the press; reporters were angry. "It would I says. seem today that the contradictory statements are com- - ing from within your own agency," one shouted. "I C n IIarrisburg, meanwhile, Critchtow waylaid think the contradictions have been overplayed," Den-Denton on his way to brief the governor and de-ton replied. "We are in full agreement and constant toured him into the newsroom, w here about forty communication, but somehow when we brief people it reporters had gathered. It was now 9:30. Critch. comes out different." d iow was irritated. Denton was calm, wearing his "I hope cJa gives A.P. heat for blowing tonight." perpetual cowboy prin. lie was accompanied---as al. suggested one reporter on the stairs. "But you should ways-by N.R.C. information head Joe Fouchard, also mention." said another, "that half the reporters chewing on an unlit cigar. here are relying on A.P. for the facts. They did a good "Please." Critchlow pleaded, "let's put this story job till tonight." of the hydrogen explosion to rest." As nervous report-ers pelted him with questions. Denton reeled off a se-A rapid change ries of figures. The bubble was 2 percent oxygen;it Benjamin thinks that the A.P. did a good job Saturday could become flammable at 8 percent, explosive at 16. night as well. De important news, he says, was that Extrapolating the rate of accumulation since the acci-the N.R.C. admitted the possibility of an explosion; dent, he figured they had twelve days before an explo-the two-day figure was never hard. On Sunday the sion was possible. But he did not intend tolet the bub-A.P. dropped it and went with Denton's estimate, by ble "just sit there." Denton explained with his engi-then revised to five days. nect's can.do optimism. If he couldn't shrink it one But to reporters (and residents)in liarrisburg Satur-way. he would try another. day night, there was all the difTerence in the uorld be-The llarrisburg A.P. bureau called Benjamin in tween two days and ta cIve days, or even between two Washington. "Denton denied your story." they told and five. It meant they didn't have to pack and run. him. repeating Denton's remarks. "That doesn't Fear turned to anger, and reporters turned theirs on sound like a denial to me." Benjamin countered. " lie the A.P. story. In a local watering hole after yet anoth-just thinks it's paing to take longer to become explo-grgis teen. hour day. they muttered about wire services 0 *om 0 a s m L[3 r e -- -
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. gyu. w - ltsn , h..~Y fE f : k .o ' N$$bs$M% NW$n.(*I.'fl 3 l. ' .f NT Y' '\\ t r in general. "If U.P.I. has panic, A.P. has got to have Newspaper Enterprise Association columnist Bob hysteria." declared Ben Livingood of the Allentown Walters w rote that the account was " inaccurate" and i Call-Chronicle. Others countered that Denton might " erroneous." The Philadc/phia Inquircr, ir long, be overly optimistic, trying to av'oid panic, and that the April 8 wrap-up, mistakenly said t..at the A.P. ?re-A.P.'s anonymous source might have been right. ported that "the bubble is so volatile th'at it may ex-In retrospect it is clear that the N.R.C. simply didn't plode at any minute." Bill lloop, who ran the liarris-know how long it might take for the bubble to explode. burg U.P.I. bureau during the crisis. smugly reminded De calculations were wild guesses at first.and carefn! us that they hadn't moved any inaccurate stories. (De-guesses after a white-but still guesses. He experts spite Saturday night, reporters were nearly unanimous I weren't absolutely sure there even was a bubble; the in praising the A.P. as faster and more thorough th:n hydrogen might have been dispersed through the cool-the competition;it had thirty.two reporters on the st >- l ing water in a thcroughly nonexplosive froth. As they ry, more than twice as many as U.P.I.) 'Onsteadily piled inference on inference-all based on in the next month Benjamin was to discover that his i erratic readings taken from instruments not built to story was entirely accurate-and (perhaps) entirely i withstand the fierce radiation-they paused from time false. He N.R.C. transcripts revealed that the com-f to time to brief the N.R.C. b ass. Once in a while the mission had in fact been extremely concerned about a ? experts or the brass briefed reporters, who com-possible bubble explosion; the A.P. had scooped ev-l plained bitterly that the bubble's deadline seemed so cryone with that crucialinformation. On h1ay 1.how-much less firm than their own. ever, Benjamin listened while hiattson informed the N.R.C.'s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards Y y hionday morning the bubble, mysteriously. , f that a bubble explosion had been impossible from the O was smarier. hici Ed s ceorge TrorTer an-start. The narr " routed up. hiaiison iora ihe mec%.. No oxygen was being gencrated within the reactor af-0 }nounced that it was essentially gone and that ihe,, are nop,ebiemsiefi. <naviegiearned ier aii. - The e,piesien siery m ar he,bcen biew n oui i bb to distrust the utility, the Harrisburg Er ng of proportion by the press." hiattson said,"but it ori- { News put utr to says in seventy-two. point type overy ginated with our stafT." its (ht edition story.) At his 11:15 briefing. Denton es-i tir..med the bubble's size,850 cubic feet a few days be- 'AHE OUE THAT GOT AUAY l fore, at 50 cubic feet now. "I don't want to be stampeded into concurring that the bubFe is actually 'f this small," Denton cautioned. "I didn't expect such a ne most important fact about the bubble saga-more j rapid change, and that's one reason I want a careful important than the conflicting stories or the bewildered took at it." Was hiet Ed distorting the truth again and fearful reporters-is that the experts.._a un-l when it said the bubble was essentially gone? ne fused in the face of a crisis they neser expected. In-8 N.R.C.'s Roger hiattson answered for Denton: "He deed, the confusion of the experts may well be the ] point I'm trying to make is there is not a clear line be-most important fact about nree hiile Island generally. I tween here and gone." For days the people in authority had little idea of what IlI Days later, reporters uere still complaining about was happening. and less of what would happen next. the A.P. story and misunderstanding its content. They fised the reactor the way a mechanic fixes a D #C D
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c*r-they tinkered. When a was all over they tried ts To understand why this story went 1.stgely uncov. e figure out w hat they had done right. With two months' cred for two wceks, think of the T.ht.I. coverage in hindsight, we now know what the big story at T.ht.1 two phases: the Cover.Up phase, focused on conflict-h really was: no one knew enough to guarantee that the ing stories from hf et Ed and the N.R.C.; and the White genie would stay in the bottle. Call this criminal in-Knight phase, focused on liarold Denton's incicdible - l competence or call it the human condition. Either way credibility. The A.P.'s Saturday night bubble was the it was the story. . watershed between the two. Afost reporters missed it. Afore precisely, most reporters skirted it in what @) ocal reporters cot on the T,hi.I. story carly they wrote, although they often suspected it and some f3 Wednesday morning when routine police of their readers and viewers may have deduced it. , checks revealed that a " general emergen-Only in mid. April, af ter the N.R.C. had reluctantly re-b,i ' cy" had been declared at the plant-mean- " d ing that radiation was escaping beyond its leased the transcripts of its fr.nzied consultations, did stories finally focus on the experts' confusion. Tom borders. ~ncy rushed to the site, where they found Reid and Ward Sinclair's April 13 lead story in The plant workers milling around and police barring the Washington Post, for example, said the transcripts gate to the island. Bob Grotevant of U.P.I. says the " portray an cency that, two days after the Pennsy! Af et Ed people were tight-lipped, refusing even to give J vania nuclear accident, still lacked any clear idc;. of him company pamphlets on display at the visitors how to deal with the problem." Robert Schakne re-center. Standing outside the center, whose telescopes ported on CBS that the transcripts showed that pointed out across the Susquehanna at T.ht.I.'s four N.R.C. members "were far more confused about the monumental cooling towers. Net Ed's Bill Gross-in j nuclear disaster at Three hfile Island than they've pub-calmer times a tour guide-announced that there had F licly admitted." David Hoffman, Frank Greve, and been a minor accident and the compmy was coping Richard Ben Cramer wrote in The Philadc/phia Inquir-with it. Gross wouldn't answer questi ns. "Thete wat-- cr that the N.R.C. was "still poorly informed, mired in obviously something wrong," G.tevant recalls, andr internal confusion" four days after the crisis began. he was suspicious. But his initial stories, like most, r m -z z - The ' Inquirer' goeS for broke For a week and more, all the world's major media wrote The Inquirer team went directly to the workers to get the about Three Afile Island. But none of them came close to story. Reporters took down license plate numbers at each matching The Philadelphia Inquirer. shift at the plant, got the names and addresses from the state "We usually put two teams on big stories," says executive motor vehicle department, then sent each a mailgram. The editor Gene Roberts, "one to do daily stories and one to Inquirer, it read, would like to hear "any observations, corn-dig." Roberts has a reputation as a reporter's editor;if the plaints. or compliments you have about the construction. op-story is good enough the checkbook is open. For T.ht.I. he cration, or repair of Unit 2. please call or w rite us. confiden-had not Iwo teams, but three. Reporter Rod Nordland head-tially if you wish." It gas e four local phone numbers and the ed the investigative group; associate managing editor Steve address of the Inquircr*silarrisburg bureau. Lovelady coordinated a special hunday chronology; reporter Two hundred mailgrams went out (some to reporters or Susan Stranahan moved to the desk to work on the technical N.R.C. officials who happened to be parked at the plant). story under metropolitan editor John Carroll, who cooked up Then the Inquirer started knocking on doors. h1any em-the daily diet of sidebars. Roberts drained his suburban bu-ployees were belligerent, most were exhausted, but fifty reaus to staff the teams. "I had a contingency plan to close agreed to intersiews. The paper alse-tracked down former down some of the city beats and put sports reporters on it if emplo>ees, using union lists on file with the Department of it got worse," he says, **but u e felt we had it sr.turated." All Labor. One man was traced to Br;tish Columbia by reporter told, there were twenty Inquirer reporters at T.ht.I., a score hf ary Bishop who called the land records office there with more in Washington, liershey, and elsewhere. Counting edi. an approximate last name and a w rong first name. He turned tors and desk people, Carroll estimates that sixty Inquirer out to be un important source. journalists worked the story. The daily technical cos erage, rneans hile, was coordinated Noscland's investigative team concentrated on Kletropoli-by Susan Stranahan, the inquircr*s former environmental re-tan Edison. What did he hope to uncover? "The worst we porter, whose beat had been dissolved by Roberts at the be-could," says Nordland, "that hf et Ed knew w hat w as wrong ginning of Alarch. Four months earlier she had toured but didn't care, that it acted irresponsibly. I don't think the T.ht.I.'s Unit 1: she had done a long piece on low. level story came out tha. way. But we did make a case that there radioactive wastes that ran buried in the Thanksgising Day was negligence by a lot of high. ranking plant officials and paper. Now she pieced together the technical angle from ac-that the problem was systemic, not isolated."The major in. counts by science writer Joel Shurkin. other reporters in vestigative piece appeared April 16, when the story was 11arrisburg, and her ow n nuclear sources. "I expect an ex-windag down at m ist other papers. It documented a hf et Ed pert could pick out errors in each story," she says, "but I cost-cutting campaign that had led to postponed mainte. hope they would be minor ones." Stranahan scored a scoop nance. quick.andsfirty repairs and fatigued employees. from the de.L on Thursday,after reporter Bob Frurnpcalled as .:a epoemqyncwm
sirnply repc:ted the statements of the police end the changing from moment to momera Reporters didn't otility. There was nothing c!se to report until af ter-seem to understand that " An A.P. chronology m I noon, when more radiation escaped and the state gov-r Wednesday's conflicting claims left open the pouibil-cr ment started questioning Met Ed's optimism.Then ity that hiet Ed simply didn't know what it had on its h the conflicting statements began, and reporters began # hands, but implied that it surely knev more Nn it looking for the cover-up. told: "Who knew there was a leak? When did they R: porters assume that sources know. The sources tell?... Utility olTicials and government authorities may tell th: truth or they may lie, mislead, or stone-didn't waver from assertions that there was no danger wall-but tney know. Our society, furthermore, as-to public health or safety. Little else remained con-sumes that scientists and engineers know. We may not stant as the story unfolded." und:rstand what they're t'alking about, but they do:ig-nor:nce and incompetence are seldom newsworthy, ' ?, N et Ed had a reputation for defensive-cnyhow. These were some of the assumptions report- ,C. #' ness even before the accident. Last I crs brought with them to Three hfile Island. summer Harrisburg magazine ran a Q s fantasy imagining a T.M.I. meltdow n: Dim light from Met Ed Creitz reacted by writing local Until Denton arrived Friday afternoon, hiet Ed was officials, urging them to yank the magazine's C.E.T. A. the main source of technicalinformation. And Met Ed funding. When the nearby York Daily Record did a se-steadfastly understated the accident, alternately de-ries on safety hazards' at T.M.I., Creitz again cried nying that there was a crisis and asserting that it was foul; two days before the accident the Record duly cvsr. Interviewed by his hometown Reading Eagic published his rebuttal accusing the paper of "yciling sev:r-1 weeks later Met Ed president Walter Creitz fire in a crowded theater." acknowledged that the company "should have been The company's credibility died fast. Ten hours after more pessimistic," but denied the cover-up charge. the accident, Lieutenant Governor William Scranton ~ ~* C Bliine Fabian, the company's public relations head, was already te!!ing a news conference that Met Ed told us "it wasn't like a train wreck-the facts kept l'has given you and us conflicting information." By m.. ~.. _2 - m tions on h's mind uere these: Did hlet Ed know how to han-i in notes from a briefing at which Denton casually mentioned th:t hiet Ed had found a valve problem in Unit I the day be-die the situation? Did the N.R.C. respond properly? Was f rc~ the accident. Stranahan called the N.R.C. to confirm the governor in the dark about what was going on? (The th1t the same valve, unrepaired in Unit 2, had played a role answers, he says, dere no, no, and yes.) in the T ht.I. event. It had. No one c!se had that story. Reporters filed long memos-interesti,g tidbits, many of While Stranahan struggled with this story. Carroll directed which could have stood alone as storiestlots of behind the-the rest of the daily coverage. Ile w ent heavily with psycho-scenes, w ho-knew-w hat.when material; and juicy exclusives logiel effects. reporting on children's dreams. gun sales, the like the late. night discussion between Afet Ed officials and tenor of church sersices. He blanket coverage turned up their newly hired Ilill & Knowlton PR consultants on how to two interesting exclusives: the fact that Afet Ed wouldn't polish their tarnished image while hiding from reporters. pry two pregnant secretaries who wanted to leave the area Jonathan Newman and Julia Cass listened outside hiet Ed's (the policy was changed after the story ran) and a scare-door at the llershey Afotor Lodge to get that one. mongering ad in the Patriot-News offering radiation badges ne result was a breathless, engrossing tale that ran nine et 54.95 each(the Consumer Protection Bureau investigated full pages in the paper-20.000 w ords in less than five days. the scalper's price and the firm pulled out). Rough some reporters resented having their nuggets swal-lowed by the monster story, Lovelady insists that this is he Inquirer sometimes reached for its color, as when it what made it uork. De rush to deadline was motivatt d by essigned its education writer to coser the reaction at comrct tion. He A.P., the PhilaJelphia Bulletin, the Los y c 3 Dickinson College in Carlisle.some twenty miles from Angth T,mes, and ne Washington Post wcre all preparing the plant. And it published not one but three inadequately chronologies. ne Post's story also broke on Sunday (it ran balanced stories about farmers who complained that their over font days), but it contained less new information. And l anim Is had been dying of cancer since Unit I opened in it lacked the Inquircr's focus on the experts' confusion. 1974. nough the Inquircr's coverage would easily win s "best On Tuesday, six days into the story, Roberts decided to job" contest among reporters at T.ht.l., some complained shoot for a definitive reconstruction of the accident and its that the paper oserplayed what it found to justify the ex. afterm-th for Sunday's paper. Steve Loselady was put in pense (Nordland alone accumulated six weeks' worth of charg: By putting together chronologies for Met Ed, the comp time in his month at Bree Mile Island). Not so, says N.R.C., state officials. and the workers, then weaving them Carroll. Ile thinks the e' clusives deserved even bigger play together, Lovelady planned to resolve the conflictint 'Mries than they rot, and says he has a stack of additional stories ints a clear picture of the es ent. "We had the supicion 6at that were winnowed out. It's hard to imagine what they no one knew what they were doing," he says. De big ques. could be about. P.S. and Af.P. [AM fR m m a r m - m O& m1
l Minute by rninute, the officiz! cwtanations of Fridry' 1 ~ C O t,{@y (.,, ) R Q N _ *)) O Q i ;[ trouNe at the Three Mile ist.ind nuclear plant Lept changing: .c B 7E.'[ -} V'n c l The new release of radation was unespected. No it wasn't. ). $'Li* %7, '. 7 l' } f 0.4 )# 5'% Yes it was. We're considering esacuating. There's no need ,g ,'h k \\ ~#. to leave. Some people should go. ~" j p g. Mt l From utility spokesmen, federal gosernment representa. Wh. : ,i 5 I. l j - tives and state authorities: Conflicting reports. .,.9 '">Q ~ '- 9 f 1 i' q5 The New York Times ran a similar piece by llen Frank- )< , /, n. s 1 w t ) N'.
- f lin, complaining about "three days of conflicting and sometimes flatly contradictory statements about the
[. *'. hj [ i k'. it d.h ~, _.. w. g g: p nuclear emergency." !,'$m,}$. / f.b agree, playing one source ag;ainst another sg b" eporters usually flourish when sources dis-hh-b ' [4; [} d < &
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and all sources against their journalistic m-y h My 7 h." A g stinct. But T.M.I. was too dangerous for re-Y %,M,i*c bdporters to enjoy the confusion, and journal-t, Q, '-Sff D istic instinct couldn't help them decide who was right ['Ih[ '.
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%@h about how much radiation was released or when the b '* h b -) % hydrogen bubble might explode. In a Friday editorial My % P J .F 1, U
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M ); T . c-khg 1.h@ M. /, f nree Mile Island to coordinate their stories. "I don't agg.g. "6.1 k'. OW;[. agree with the editorial," Charles Mohr of the Times A'-b told us the following Tuesday, "Nothing should be-
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h done to cut off any source." BW Mohr was an exce;s-- [ hN . % 4 -h.~p.k' gu technical story desperately wanted the experts to tion. Generally speakmg, most of the reporters on the 1g&w;..gifM.c Tg 2 y/.Ofsu. 3 StafLing color: On fur.'ou;h from the technical speak with one voice. When the experts didn't they story. reporters trail Gos crnor Thorn burgh and his were angry and went after the discrepancies, in the wife at the Ucrshey eiacuation ccnter. words of Jim IIolton of NBC radio,"like petulant chil-dren playing D.A." Saturday N.R.C. and state government people were Enter Denton openly advising reporters to ignore the utility; and the White IIouse called the same day, instructing the com-On Saturday the N.R.C. did what the Times had pany to refer all questions to the N.R.C. (Fabian says f asked. Harold Denton became the point man for allin-the company had already decided to stop comment-formation about the accident; Met Ed clammed up and ing.) ne strongest evidence that Met Ed had squan. j the N.R.C. in Washington tried to do likewise. At dered its credibility is that reporters didn't object to Denton's first formal news conf erence Friday night a the muzzling--on a story that had all too few sources reporter popped the crucial question: "Has a situation already. simiLr to this ever been dealt with before? Do you ne relative weight ofincompetence and dishonesty know what you are doing?" Denton answered hesi-in Met Ed's early statements is hard to determine even tantly. "Well, I think we know what we are doing, yes, now. Journabsts, in any case, focused on the cover-but we have never had such extensive fuel damage in up. Dursday morning, in the first of several critical the life of any reactor." 1.ater he added that the bub-editorials, the liarrisburg Patriot wrote of "an attempt ble and the escape of radiation from the containment to avoid alarming the public by silence and secrecy, building were also unexpected. These were the three which is the best way to awaken the darkest fears of most dangerous developments to occur at Three Mile people." Roger Witherspoon of The Atlanta Constitu. Island. tion was less delicate. In a weekend press piece he But Denton*s calm demeanor and constant optimism u rote that Met Ed " basically said nothing, contributed were as reassuring as his frankness was refreshing. little, misinformed N.R.C. officials, misled public and the White Ibight won instant credibility. In their l l officials, and finally shut down because no one be-eagerness to invest him with authority, reporters lieved them anyway." called him Doetor Denton, although he has only a Met Ed was responsible for most of the conflicting bachelor of science degree from North Carolina State. stories daring the first three days, but the N.R.C. in They wrote thumbnail sketches that stressed his jowly Washington ar" the state government in IIarrisburg grin and unflappabic style. But they didn't write a lead l contributed then share, especially on Friday. nat like this: "The N.R.C. and its nuclear consultants night the Associated Press moved a chronology of the from around the world are still unable to state with day's disagreements that was praised by nearly every onfidence u hat is happening inside the crippled nree A R %g'The A.P.came clos Q reporter we talked to. It began this way: fil oe e--
i t -five days after the accident, with a story that began: The incident has become a focus for charpei, of an I "In an industry devoted to stringent safety features N.R.C. cover up. Nordland maintains that Abraham and voluminous contingency plans, the dangerous lied and that he even apologized to Jminitcr reporter h bubble lodged under the roof of the Three Mile Island Ray llotton the next day for having done so. Ihit nuclear reactor is onc: emergency the emergency plan-Abraham says that he,was " set up" by the paper, ners did not foresce." The Los Angeles Times ran the which was vague about how it had heard about the story on page nine; few major papers used it at all. leak and gave him the impression that it was a major Saturday night's A.P. exclusive was the last impor-one. Ile did call press secretary Paul Critchlow, he tant discrepant account---and reporters at the site be-says, but only to " alert him that he might get some lieved Denton. "He's disarmingly frank," murmured" press action." Denton, in any case, only enhandd his Tony Mauro of Gannett after Denton visited the capi-standing by the way he confirmed the leak at his tot newsroom to deflate the story. "IIe can probably briefing the next af ternoon. be believed that the bubble is stable." By then the pos-sibility of meltdown or explosion seemed far more Ithoughit is hardtoprove that the N.R.C. newswonhy than either the N.R.C.'s continuing con- ]~- lied, public relations are a recurring theme in the commission transcripts. As fusion or the diminishing conflict among sources. g nc Washington Post su'mmarized them From Sunday on, the accident as seen through the M, " on April 13, the transcripts show that the eyes of Harold Denton dominated the coverage. Only the color stories continued to quote local residents N.R.C. " worked hard to make sure that mainly *reas-who felt they weren't getting the truth. Reporters, at suring' information would reach the public." The commission wasn't in session Saturday night when the last, felt they were, Only once after Denton came on the scene was the A.P. bubble story hit the wires, but its reaction to N.R.C. itself accused oflying to the press,but Denton U.P.I.'s bubble story Friday afternoon was angrily de-himself emerged unscathed. Late Monday night, fensive. Certain that the media would grossly exagg'i~ parked directly across the Susquehanna from the ate anything it said about the danger, the N.R.C. con! ' plant, Rod Nordland of The Philadelphia Inquircr's in-sister.tly understated its own anxiety. The prediction vestigative team fooled with his fancy scanner radio, was self-fulfilling, of course. Believing that the N.R.C. searching for T.M.I. transmissions. Nothing on the was grossly minimizing the threat, the media magnified utility band, nor the police band. He switched to a fre-the commission's public statements on the likelihood quency the instruction booklet said was reserved for and imminence of disaster. By so doing they achieved " federal interagency cooperation during a nuclear a roughly accurate picture of the N.R.C.'s private as-war." And there they were. sessments. (At hearings in Washington in the wake of "There's a direct leak from the containment!", the accident, N.R.C. staff members testified that the shouted a worker identified as Tom. " Shut the damn core had been less damaged than they had thought and thing down and quit screwing around!" Expecting a that the bubble could never have exploded. At the time - scoop on the latest leak, Nordland called the make-the N.R.C. had sought unsuccessfully to hide its fearst shift N.R.C. press center in Middletown Borough Hall now it said they had been excessive.) for confirmation. Karl Abraham, formerly a Phila-The typical Three Mile Island story seesawed care-delphia Bulletin science writer and now a regionalin-fully between the looming threat of disaster and the in-formation officer for the N.R.C., told Nordland he dustrious optimism of the experts. Imagine yourself at would check it out and get back to him. In Philadelphia your breakfast table Saturday morning reading this i p the presses were stopped to await the story, but A.P. overnight (we've put the bad news in roman type. Abraham didn't make deadline. Finally he called back the good news in italics): I and told Nordland there was noleak. According to the Sc.ientists struggled t c I d wn the stricken ~ Duce Mile Inquircr, which obviously had it on background, Island nuclear power plant today, but authorifics said the Abraham then called the governor's press office and chances of a rarastrophic mcit-down were "rcry rcmore" reported that the inquircr had found out about a minor and assured 130.100 nearby residents they s cre soft. leak but not to worry, he had denied it completely. While technicians tried to " bleed"a bubble of radioactive At Denton's bricfing the next afternoon the Inquirer vapor threatening the plant's damaged nuclear core Gor. i triumphantly read its radio transcript and asked for Dick Thornburgh said at a news confcrence late 3csrcrday comment. Denton readily confirmed the leak, noting that no scncral crocuorion of the arca is necessary "at this [ that small feats were common when workers took time. " After the tensest day since Wednesday's plant accident, sampics of coolant water. Wednesday's Inquirer Ilmtd &nton, ti cctor of operations for the U.S. Nucitar ? played the story at the bottom of page one. Mctio edi-
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P tor John Carroll says he would have done more with it N ""**'' '* w hen he said thur was "no inunediarc [ but Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Eugene Or-danger to the public,,', mandy retired and grabbed the headh.nes. "It was a small leak." admits Carroll. "but it was the first time Like most T.M.I. coverage, this is fair, understand. y the N.R.C. was caught lipgrye. > putg tfalse able, and accurate; concerned hut calm. It is also al. ] U }3 } nosi mythic: paladins tabor night and day to overcome R information." D 0 i U = - - - - - - - Mc c a
O , the forces of chaos. hfissi.ig from the story is whether got rough,.ind stopped writing altogether when it rot they knew how. rougher still. They seldom asked questions, but the questions they did ad efien brought the bricfings back O A TIICHIIICAL Taut to basics: "Just how dangerous is this?" "What ate At the beginning', at least, the vast majority of report-the chances of an evacuation now?" These were the ers had no idea what anybody was talking about. An-reporters whose securring nightmare was that Denton chorless on a sea of rads and rems and roentgens, of would announce a meltdown in technicallanguage and core vessels and containments and cooling systems, they wouldn't realize what had happened. After each they built their stories around the discrepancies be-news conference they gathered in small knots to com-tween sources, confident that the news, when they. pare notes, and whenever possible they checked their finally came to understand it, would center on the facts stories against wire copy before filing. Included in this in dispute. What is surprising about the T.M.I. cover. category were most of the non-network broadcasters, age that emerged is not that it was sometimes techni-reporters from small newspapers, almt st everyone cally wrong, but that it was so often technically right. who covered the story alone, and almos. everyone It's Afonday noon in the hiiddletown Borough IIall who arrived later than Saturday (" fresh meat," rotat. gymnasium, and Denton and Afattson are holding ed in because of radiation anxiety). court before some 200 reporters who have battled for a O Only a handful of reporters knew much about precious spot where they can both see and hear. Den-nuclear power before they reached T.M.I.%cy were ton stands on the free-throw line, half hidden behind a all science and energy writersalthough not all the forest of microphones. %ere's no PA system yet, and science and energy writers qualified. At the briefings transcripts are still iffy, so you have to listen hard. Cu-they asked highly technical questions. Detwecn rious townspeople drift in and out of the bleachers, briefings they badgered the information people to call marveling at the cameras and frowning at the cuss-the plant for specific data, quickly co!!ecting an audi-words. He big news is the shrinking bubble, of ence of co!!eagues who wondered aloud whc.t they course, but later someone asks how the accident start-wanted to know that for. Stuar' Diamond of Newpay ed. IIere's hiattson's answer, praised by reporters as typified this breed. Afost out-of-towners landed in the clearest and most complete chronology of what Harrisburg with only the clothes on their backs and a ' had happened: notebook; Diamonu brought along his Rolodex and i reference books from past nuclear stories, and spent ne steps leading to the s.tuation wc*rc m today can roughly b b wed phone at the Harrisburg Patrior be charactenzed as the loss of feedwater on the secondary calh.ng h.is network of expert sources. side of the power plant:a rise in pressure on the primary side O Nearly a quarter of the reporters had a single ex-of the reactor pov er plant; a discharge of coolant through ~ the pressurizer;ine initiation of the backup safety injection pert on tap-a source from an earlier story, a science system, the emergency core cooling system which comes on writer back in the office, or a paid consuhant on the automatica!!y on high containment pressure, or loss of cool-scene. Dese reporters often read their questions at ant from the facility:the continued high pressure of the facil-briefings, stumbling over the jargon; they couldn't ask ity with the high pressure injection system actuated; then the follow.ups until they had checked with their expert to turning off of the safety injection system for some period of find out what the first answer meant. If the expert was j time;... and shortly thereafter the reinitiation of the nearby, the system worked. NBC, ABC, and the Chi-emergency core coofmg system after a gas situation that de-rogo Tribune all got good mileage out of their technical sefops m the reactor core, for the emergency core cooling consultants, but CBS probably got the most for its system by itself without a loss of coolmg acc, dent was un-i money. Long Island radiologist }{arry Astarita arrived able to keep down the temperature in the core. Rat was Friday evening to check the radiation badges of the finally stabilized by reestablishing the flow of the primary coolant and by restarting ti,e main reactor coolant pump, the CBS crew. Quickly dubbed " Radiation 11arry," he one that is still running. wound up checking copy as well-and prompting re-porters with questions, scotching phony stories, and l [C(] hat's it-no wall chart, no glossary, no correcting false analogies. lie even managed an exclu-technical experts hanging around afterward sive two-hour ofi-the-record interview with a Met I'd for questions. Okay, now write a few grais engineer to get the reactor schematics straight. We on what went wrong at the plant. Or walk wanted to talk to Astarita. Ile could only spare us a C across the gym to your phone, call your sta-minute, te apologized happily: "I have to make a 4 tion, and tell your listeners how the accident hap-deadline." pened. (When that's done, try to discover if the g O ne rest of the reporters made thcmscircs into N.R.C. is hiding anything.) V experts-fast. In the wee hours of Sunday morning. He reporters who were given this technical assign-reporters at Lombardo's Olarrisburg's plushest bar) ment fellinto four categories, judginr. by responses to clustered around Ben Livingood as though he wcre questionnaires we handed c.ut. Ilarold Denton himself, while Livingood drew Ma-O About a third were fr mkly h:wildered. They re-grams on cocktail napkins to explain the dynamics of lased when the questioning turned momentarily non-the hydrogen bubble. Lisingood is a political reporter I technical, took frantic verbatim notes when the g
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\\] 4 U .3 e $C On Friday, Livingood turned to a Penn State nuclear - 9t_17 'h a, g;s h. __ 7[" *A 8 4 g, M ' l 0L engineer for help and he continued to use him on back-N- ground throughout the crisis. But,like many other re-v % g (f4 D j porters, Livingcod himself acquired an impressive -g4-2-g " ?{. ?. >c.w[- M @fg. $jI.$] hj g unount of nuclear expertise at T.M.I. (It helped, he .y siys, that he "tried not to get stuck on the conflictmg-Mr f. Qelg 7 -p%g gwy. dst Q,.,,jl k sources angle.") 9.. f
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~~ 6 7.' $/ Roger Peterson later told The New York 7 ~ Times,,,you didn,t know what on earth was going ) biala.ng the u.nrmb!r vm..bic: On a story on -and science writers are seldom nuclear scien. , rg,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,;,gg,, c,;,,, counterin Jowntown AfiJJIctown. tists. There were perhaps forty full-time science jour-f nalists at the site, about a fifth of the nation's total. Some, like the Milwaukee Journars Paul Hayes, cov-in suburban Philadelphia on Wednesday, but he had no cred the story alone, while others, like ne Boston back-up until Friday afternoon and no press facility, Globe's Jerry Ackerman, were part of a team. Either apart from Critchtow's ofTice, until Sunday night. wey, their stories on the breaking news were almost Critchlow and his deputy, Roland Page, meanwhile," C indistinguishable from what general assignment re-were busy asking questions on behalf ofinegovernor; ~~ ~ porters produced. ney did have a head' start on the they left the question-answering to the junior staff, backgrounders, but many editors decided that the who mostly just took messages. l backgrounders could be written just as well back at the Even getting through to the N.R.C. by phone was office. The big advantage went to those few science virtually impossible during the first four days. And writers with a personal file of expert contacts. While when a reporter did reach the office, more often than Ncwsday's Diamond and the few others who had cov-not the question had to be relayed to a technical spe-cred nuclear power extensively ran up long-distance cialist, a task that took hours more. Logistics slowly phone bills, their co!!eagues scrambled--often unsuc-began improving when the N.R.C. got its Afiddletown cessfully-for someone knowledgeable to interview in facility in operation hionday. By then the commission tcwn. had emptied its regional offices and had seven ofits ten PR professionals in Pennsylvania and the other three Left with the flacks in Washington. But they were quickly overwhelmed Even biased sources were scarce. Anti-nuclear ex-by the sheer volume of the requests. Aforeover, until perts Ernest Sternglass and George Wald came to Har-hionday night, when safety engineer Robert Bernero risburg for a press conference on nursday, and then arrived, the N.R.C. did not have a single technical ex-took off again. Afobilization for Survival, a Phila-pert assigned to talk to reporters at T.ht.l. Tom El-delphia-based anti. nuclear group, and Three hiile sasser, an engineer who normally handles relations Alert, a small Harrisburg affiliate, co. sponsored the with state ofTicials, had filled the vacant briefer's slot Sternplass and Wald visits, but reporters who called Sunday and had done his best. Alert's unlisted phone number over the weekend were lugubrio'usly informed by an answering service that Running with the pack everyone was gone and would stay gone until it was hf canwhile, reporters helped each other. Viewed from safe to return. the desk. T.ht.l. was a hotly competitive story, and The nuclear industry wasn't afraid of radiation;it few reporters escaped a daily call from an editor ask-l was afraid of reporters. Hundreds of industry experts ing why they had missed an angle. But viewed from crowded the nearby motels. ID tags and dosimeters the site, the story required collaboration. From the I c5pped to their lapels. De Atomic Industrial Forum, moment the Harrisburg press corps heard about the l never before at a loss for words, sat vigil with hiet accident, explains The Philadc/phia Inquircr's Tom Ed's publicists in their suite at the posh Hershey Afo-Ferrick, "we all shared information. We got drawings tor Lu.;. but il gave no interviews. and pieced together the sequence of events at the Any expert at T.ht.l., however biased, would have plant. We went out and got books on nuclear energy had a captive audience of hundreds. In the absence of and compared them and discussed how a reactor experts, PR people ruled the roost. And charges of works." Newspaper Enterprise Association columnist cover.up aside, the PR logistics were intolerably bad. Bob Walters calls this " pack jo malism at its worst." Karl Abraham arrised from the N.R.C. regional office gc tryingn EI INI story right, with-6 JM h ~ ~,,,
t out ready access to the e%.crts, it seemed like good by the thyroid. Some of these errors ucre cleated up ' sense. by the end of the week.but Met Ed's false comparison a Three Mile Island ofTered few alternatives to pack of radiation-leak dosage with X-rays lasted much long-h journalism. Reporters occasionally found a fresh color er: your whole body is not exposed to a chest or dental angle, or broke away from the herd with a background X-ray, a difference reporters unconsciously acknowl-piece-but the main event was inside the T.ht.l. reac-edged by crossing their legs whenever radioactivity tor, and information on that event had to come frora was d:scussed. the N.R.C. or hiet Ed. A few individual news organi-The news about radiation at Three Afile Island was zations managed to stand out-the A.P. with its de-generally reassuring. But somehow neither readers nor tailed play-by-plays of conflicting statements; Ute, reporters were reassured. On April 9 Bill Drummond Washington Post with its unmatched contacts at did a sensitive piece on radiation anxiety in the Los N.R.C. headquarters (the Posi covered the story more AnscIcs Times, based largely on interviews with psy-from Washington than from Penr:sylvania); ne Phila-chologists. Ile could as casily have interviewed report-dc/phia Inquircr with its all-out muckraking zeal. But ers. "I felt safer in Biafra than I do here," said Ray enterprise reporting rarely dominates a breaking story, Coffey of the Chicago Tribune. "I'd be a lot happier if certainly not a breaking technical story. Most hard we could paint this shit purple or make it smell." news pieces on T.M.I. were interchangeable. And most of the reporters who wrote them collaborated IHLKIUG THE STORY like unprepared students on an unfair homework as-By Monday afternoon the crisis was waning, and so signment:"What have you got for how big the bubble were the coverage problems. Reporters were begin-is this morning?" ning to understand the technical details; the N.R.C. When they got something wrong, they all got it was beginning to get its logistics together; the conflict-wrong. Most reporters parroted misleading informa-ing accounts were beginning to agree. Jeffrey liodes of tion about radiation exposure for days-cven weeks-the Independent Television News Association was-after the accident.. At the beginning they ignored the nonetheless depressed. "I feelI?e a failure," he con - differences between the radiation dose per hour in a fessed. "I cannot understand this stuff and it's impos-plume that passes by, the cumulative dose received by sible to explain it in sixty seconds. I finally cornered a a person who stays in Middletown, and the continuing technical guy from the' N.R.C. and said, 'Look, I've radiation from a particle of Iodine-131 that is absorbed been here four days and there's just one thing I want c..- The local media fecI the heat When the national media descend on a Middle American city by Friday the statien had modified its fermat and was giving for a big story, you expect the city stickers to outshine the T.M.I. extensive coverage. WIIP-TV ran three half-hour locals. Not this time. Almost unanimously, out-of-town re-news specials during the crisis. WGAL, an NBC affiliate in porters prahed the performance of the liarrisburg Patriot nearby Lancaster,is the top-rated TV station (and the ordy and Eveniri News. The praise for local TV and radio was VilF station)in the market;it stayed on the air all night Fri-less fulserae (few reporters had time to watch or listen), but day to handle the crisis. WTPA, llarrisburg's Newhou:e-even here the assessment was complimentary. Local cover-owned ABC affiliate, kept its TV station on the air all night age of T.M.I. was flaccid before the crisis.but under the gun Friday end Saturday and switched its nighttime radio from the locals did a creditable job. automated music to live news for five days. He Patriot-News is a typical Newhouse small-city profit Oserall local coverage was professional, thorough, and center. Editor Saul Kohler covered the White llouse for the scry cautious. In the two weeks following the accident, not chain for ten years before taking over the Euning News in once did local reporters garble anything significant. Nor did 1978; he became executive editor of both papers the morning they once score a beat on anything significant. Every local of the T.M.I. accident. reporter and editor we talked to said the same thing: this is For the next tuo weeks Kohler says, the papers "had no our community, these are our neighbors, wc don't want to budget." Extra pages were added, two dozen reporters were start a panic with an inaccurate story. Or esen, perhaps, told not to worry shout overtime, and press deadlines were with an accurate one. ignored. The Enning News abandoned its two editions and The Patriot-News, for example, spiked a reporter's ac-went through as many as five replates daily. "The VDTs count of what w ould happen to bank records in the esent of saved our ass," says Kohler (though Patrior reporter Ron a disaster because it didn't want to provoke a run on the Jury half. jokingly complain-d that his dosimeter registered banks. It used, but dow nplayed, an A.p. "what-if" piece on eight mi!!irems after twenty-five minutes at the keyboard). the likel> effects of a meltdow n("I'm not going to tell people The papers capped their coverage with an adless sixteen-their hair will turn green." says Kohler). It rejected thou-page supp!cment on April 16. sands of dollars in ads for evacuation sales and radiation de-lecal broadcasters also gave the story everything they tectors (the Inquircr reported the only one that got thsough). had-which amounted to half a dozen reporters cach. The And it checked esery word of wire copylocally before print-domir. ant radio station in the market is Wilp.a CBS affiliate; ing it. The cross-checking protected the papers from A.P. ci- ~
\\ l 12 Lnow: cxactly what's wrong.* lle started to explain overwhelm the story, leaving the imprewion that fear
- . it to me. Ile drew a diagram and told me how the pres-was the main esent at T.M.I. In the week af ter the ac-surz built up like when you shake a pop bottleJ For the cident, for example. AllC used thirty-nine interviews fir:t time I was beginning to get an i:!ca of what wa's related to T.ht.I. on its evening news. Nine were with poing on in the reactor.nen Jimmy Breslin walked up D/nton.11cndrie, or other N.R.C. sources; nine were end asked him, *When are' you going to release da with local, state, or national politiciam three were names of da woikers? [Four hiet Ed employees had with Met Ed representatives; one cach was with a exceeded their permissible radiation dose.] Ifuh?
plant worker, an insurance adjuster, and a radiation What about da woikersT Six other reporters rushed expert. The other fifteen were with local residents, cver to hear the answer, and that wa,'he end of my who told how scared they were, or vc ien't. Although tesson." ABC's reporters at the site did a con petent job of Like Breslin of the New York Daily News, aNut summarizing technical developments, people who fol-h:lf the reporters who haunted IIarrisburg in the day lowed nree hfile Island on this network saw more of titer the accident studiously avoided what they called frightened farmers and brave children than they did of thz " plumbing" storj, relying for that on colleagues or Ilarold Denton and his aides. the wires. ney were there to cover the conventional disaster story that never materialized. While they bU i. ore important, the color coverage was ~' waited, they covered the preparations for evacuation. "). one. sided and unsophisticated in its I And they wrote color pieces. .L ' f handling of scientific controversies. I Color was more than a legitimate part of the T.ht.I. Newspapers and networks regularly story; it was an important part. Poll results since the
- b. V Ci d. crossed the line between covering recident show that fear is a crucial new element in the people's fears (!cgitimate and important) and letting energy cost-benefit calculation; reporting this fear-or those fears represent the actual situation (misicading its absence-is significant journalism. Dat said, we and unfair). He words of a dairy farmer'who claims" C find much to complain about in the color coverage at' he's afraid to drink his own animals' mili more than ~ - ~
Three hiite Island. balance official statements that the milk is safe---espe- ' cially when the farmer is positioned to speak for both Evil steam sides. liere is Jim Ilardison, interviewed by Bill Zim-Editors (especially on TV) sometimes let the sidebars merman on ABC after a state inspector checked his 3 rors. It also protected them from the more pessimistic as-tional press corps. WilP helped out not only the CBS team, sessments that the A.P. was moving out of Washington. but also crews from network-owned WCBS (New York), "Our whole effort was directed at not oscrly alarming WCAU (Philadelphia), and KNXT(Los Angeles). Any sta-prople." says Paul lleil, WGAL news director. "Some of tion was welcome to use its news-conference feeds, and the smaller radio stations went with rumors, adding a weasel many did. WGAL was twenty.three miles away in Lancast. like *wc*re trying to confirm that now.* We didn't report any-er, so the NBC people wound up at %TPA along with ABC thing until af ter we had confirmed it." None of the three lo-and the out-of. town affiliates of both networks.The Patriot-col TV stations used the A.P.'s Saturday evening report that News was similarly overburdened by teams from Newhouse, the bubble might become cnp1osive. The Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles ne networks. of course, were less preoccupied with pan-Times. and dozens of smaller publications. ie than their affiliates. CBS and NBC devoted their 9 p.m. In contrast to the visitors, who were ten'se and tired, but news updates to the A.P. bulletin, starting an avalanche of also excite 4, the locals were grim. more openly frightened, phone calls to the local stations. WGAL (NBC) and WTPA Most rati.ot. News staff members took time off to get their (ABC) reached Denton at the site and interrupted program-families out of town, then almost lived in the newsroom, ming with his assurances that the danger wasn't imminent. doggedly trying to find out what was happening for the WilP (CBS) waited for Denton's capitol briermg. then used neighbors w ho were lef t. the story on its 11:00 news. A touch of civic boosterism notwithstanding, the local me-I I dia did a good job with the T.M.I. crisis. The real test comes fler CBS broadcast what WilP news director IIerb now, after national attention has moved on. nc pressure to nurman calls "the ultimate meltdown story" on close ranks and to protect the area from economic damage l Sunday (it described what would happen should one will be intense. An early sign appeared April 10,less than l occur), general manager Joseph liiggins called Bill Leonard two weeks after the accident, when sixty civic Icaders con-l tt CBS News to complain. "ne network's main concern sened a blue-ribbon committee to "take a lemon and change wts to make the story as dramatic as possible," nurman it into lemonade " with a PR stress on bolstering the area's says.**much to the detriment of the local viewing public." threatened agriculture, dairy, and tourism industries. Patri-Although some local news organimions were. critical of ot-News publisher John H. Baum has become an active I national coverage. all were eminently hospitable to the na-member of that committee. P.S. and Af.P. 3** A M ' 9 ' M (R bo o k S. N
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dl a , milk:"Ile said there's no iodine showing up and at this ity. Said anti-nucicar activists: it's what we'se been .Q point it's perfectly, well you know, to drink. But I telling you all along. Where w erc you at all thow other l won't take that chance.... I don't think we've been accidents? 1 h ', informed in the past ten years the amount of radiation What. indeed. made T.M.I. such a story? For one ( that's been released from that plant." Such claims-thing. the accident came at a time of heightened ; some of them hotly debated, some discounted even by awareness of nuclear issues. The China Syndrome was anti-nuclear experts-needed to be evaluated, or at proving a box-office hit and had aircady made " melt-least balanced in the same story. down" a household word. PBS had just aire _d "P,.ml, Inevitably, perhaps, the color coverage was often Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang." a strong statement superficial and stereotyped. The kids were all cute or-about radmTian%nger andTovernment indifference. handicapped (or both); the farmers were all struggling; The N.R.C had recently found flaws in the Rasmussen the senior citizens were all feisty. Sometimes the mis-Report, which held that meltdown was extremely un-representation was more serious. "I'll give you just likely, and hr.d then closed five northeastern nuclear one example," said an exhausted Red Cross volunteer - plants because they were no longer judged to be carth-two weeks after the accident. "I've been doing radia-quake-proof. Congress was considering a bill to expe-tion screening, to reassure people. Today some report-dite plant licensing, and the commission was consider-ers from Washington asked me to help them find a piti-ing a cut in radiation exposure limits. The place was ful case to interview. nat's what they said, a pitiful right, too. Ilarrisburg is just a short hop from New case." Earlier, Atlanta Constitution reporter Barry York and Washington, with plenty of hotels, restau-King had watched a network crew on the streets of rants. and plane connections. Middletown asking people to please " stay out of the The accident itself was unique. He rich smorgas-camera shot." The residents obliged, King wrote, but bord of conflicting statements served up by Met Ed "they were later angered to see their town depicted as and the N.R.C. piqued editors' interest in a possible an ' abandoned city.'" cover-up. And they had time to go find out'liost fu! Dere was nothing,to see at Three Mile Island. De-clear accidents, however dange.ous, are over in hours'. spite Breslin's Daily News rhetoric about " evil" steam nis time the cliffhanger lasted for days. dripping down the cooling towers "like candle ~ wax," T.M.I. at the height of the crisis looked exactly like 9 T ost important, Three Mile Island 't]T T.M.I. before the crisis-except that the two-lane marked the largest release of uncon-road across the Susquehanna from the plant was trolled radiation into a heavily popu-crowded with broadcasters taping their standuppers. F lated environment in the history of the A proposal to put a pool camera in the control room bJd.) industry. He radiation triggered a got nowhere. ne most frustrated journalists at T.M.I. " general emergency" that forced plant authorities to were the photographers and TV people (Life later as-warn the public promptly-and then the radiation kept tounded everyone by managing to make the story visu-on coming. In the week fo!!owing the accident, a hypo-ally interesting). Their editors claraoring for fresh thetid resident standing naked at the T.M.I. north front-page fodder, the word people went looking for gate absorbed roughly eighty-five millirems of radioac-someone to interview. With sources hard to find and tivity, less than the annual difference between what readers already overdosed on technical detail, they residents of Ilarrisburg and Denver receive. (Report-wound up writing color. Says Peter Stoler of Time: ers, according to the dotimeters many brought with "You want a panicky citizen, you get a panicky citi-them absorbed well under ten millirems.) The result-7en." ing increment in the local cancer rate, though argu- ' able, will certa; iy be small. But reporters didn't know A glimpse of Armageddon that Wednesday afternoon when Lieutenant Governor The color at T.M.I. was overcovered, but T.M.I. itself Scranton first announced that there had been two pufis was not-despite charges of sensationalism from the of radiation. ney didn't know it Friday morning when White House and elsewhere. Every overblown head-officials admitted to a third substantial release. They line like the New York Post's RACE WITil NUCLEAR knew only that radiation was leaking at Hree Mile 1s-nisAsTER had its anderstated counterpart like the land-sporadically. invisibly, and dangcrously. Manchester Union Lcadcr's NO INJURIES REPORTED IN Reporters came to T.M.I. to cover two stories, the NUKE MisH AP. Walter Cronkite couldn't resist g' imps-leaking radiation and the conflicting strtements. hey ing Armageddon on the horizon-but all-news WCBS were soon engulfed by a bigger story, the battle radio in New York stuck stolidly to its format, seldom against the bubble. Despite the obstacles-the scarcity according T.M.I. more than sixty seconds at a shot. of sources, the rotten logistics, their own fear and ig-Most of the coverage stayed responsibly in the middle. norance-they handled all three stories reasonably Nuclear proponents and opponents alike were be-well. And as the crisis subsided. they finally began to wildered by the T.M.I. media blitz. He system focus on the fourth and most important story: Do the l worked, industry supporters repeated, just as it has experts know enough to protect us from nuclear catas. uorked in other nuclear accidents: there was no cata-trophc? That story has been around, largely uncos-l strophic meltdown, no big explosion, not a single fatal-cred, for a decade. Now it is news. m u - - - - - - - - _}}