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Overview"""What escaped at Three Mile Island was not only radiation, but, more importantly for the nuclear power industry, public confidence in technology and technocracy,"" report Cantelon and Williams in their detailed account of the response of the Department of Energy to America's worst civilian nuclear power accident. What happened at Three Mile Island was a technological failure of monstrous proportions. ""Yet,"" the authors contend, ""the serious extent of the accident was caused by human error: technocrats blundered, lost control of technology, and, refusing to admit it, gave confusing, inconsistent, and jargon-laden explanations."" There was a welter of information and misinformation. To sift out the truth that would enable them to write the history of this contemporary event, Cantelon and Williams relied on unpublished archival materials--including logs of scientists and government officials--on oral interviews with participants, and on reports of other government agencies. The result is a significant history, one that shows how scientists and politicians responded to the unbelievable and unexpected as they tried to deal with a highly technical event in the glare of television lights and under the inquisitive and fearful eyes of the public. The danger was never real, yet for the nation and certainly for the immediate community around Three Mile Island, risk perceived was risk endured. Many of the residents of what became a ""war zone"" will never be the same, though radiation never touched them. Imagination and unconscious fears were far more important than any accurate perception of risk after a Nuclear Regulatory Commission official usedthe term meltdown at a Friday afternoon news conference." Full Product DetailsAuthor: Philip L. Cantelon , Robert C. Williams , Jack M. HollPublisher: Southern Illinois University Press Imprint: Southern Illinois University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 22.90cm ISBN: 9780809310791ISBN 10: 0809310791 Pages: 256 Publication Date: 01 September 1982 Audience: College/higher education , General/trade , Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate , General Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Temporarily unavailable  The supplier advises that this item is temporarily unavailable. It will be ordered for you and placed on backorder. Once it does come back in stock, we will ship it out to you. Table of ContentsReviewsIt would be hard to imagine that anyone could produce a more representative and readable account of the technical and human failures at Three Mile Island. The account of the sequence of events and of the human interplay that first created, and then narrowly contained, this potential disaster, is downright gripping. Choice It would be hard to imagine that anyone could produce a more representative and readable account of the technical and hu-man failures at Three Mile Island. The account of the sequence of events and of the human interplay that first cre-ated, and then narrowly contained, this potential disaster, is downright gripping. -- Choice <br> It would be hard to imagine that anyone could produce a more representative and readable account of the technical and human failures at Three Mile Island. The account of the sequence of events and of the human interplay that first created, and then narrowly contained, this potential disaster, is downright gripping. Choice It would be hard to imagine that anyone could produce a more representative and readable account of the technical and hu-man failures at Three Mile Island. The account of the sequence of events and of the human interplay that first cre-ated, and then narrowly contained, this potential disaster, is downright gripping. -- Choice Author InformationPhilip L. Cantelon is President of History Associates, Incorporated, Gaithersburg, Maryland. He serves on the Board of Editors of The Public Historian. He was Fulbright Professor of American Civilization at Kyushu National University and Seinan Gakuin University in Japan. Robert C. Williams is Professor of History and Dean of University College at Washington University, St. Louis. He has published books and articles on such diverse topics as Russian émigré artists, linear algebra, Soviet art, and Russian political history. Jack M. Holl is Acting Chief Historian for the Department of Energy. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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