The history – and future – of TMI

What are the lessons learned from the nation’s worst nuclear disaster along the Susquehanna?

• Karen Hendricks/WITF
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Karen Hendricks hosts WITF’s Morning Edition, heard weekdays from 5-9am. She enjoys navigating the news of the day with listeners, weaving together WITF’s compelling regional coverage with NPR’s unbiased reporting from around the globe—while simultaneously being a reliable, friendly voice as your morning companion.
  
  Karen is an award-winning, lifelong journalist. Her work has garnered more than 20 state and national journalism awards. Her true passion is bringing stories of everyday heroes to light: Her story about a weekend warrior pulling trash out of the Susquehanna River, for the York Daily Record, earned a national first-place award from the Society for Features Journalism.
  
  A Philadelphia-area native and Lock Haven University graduate, Karen has called Central Pennsylvania home for 30+ years. She’s worked for media outlets throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region and Central Pennsylvania, including Harrisburg, Lancaster, York and Gettysburg.
  
  She considers her family and three adult children her brightest, best accomplishments. She and her husband enjoy exploring our national and state parks. She’s writing a memoir about running 50 races to benefit 50 causes when she was 50.

 Jeremy Long / WITF

Three Mile Island pictured on June 3, 2024. (Jeremy Long - WITF)

Dave Allard in TMI Unit2 Control Room, circa 2012

One of the most well-known landmarks associated with the Susquehanna River is the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pa.

It’s the site of what’s considered the worst commercial nuclear accident in U-S history, when a partial nuclear meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor happened in March of 1979.

David Allard not only explains where he was in March of 1979, but he helps us make sense of the lessons learned in the wake of TMI, including response and recovery efforts,  heightened nuclear safety concerns, the psychological impact on the general public, nuclear industry regulations, and improved communication. He also talks about continued challenges facing the nuclear industry today, including radioactive waste management.

Allard is a medical health physicist with more than 45 years of experience in radiation protection. A nationally and internationally-recognized expert, Allard retired after 24 years as director of the Bureau of Radiation Protection with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

TMI’s Unit 1 went offline in 2019. But in 2024, Constellation Energy announced a plan to bring Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 back online, rebranded as the Crane Clean Energy Center, to ramp up for increasing electricity needs.

Allard explains why he has no concerns over the restart of Unit 1, and he invites the public to the next meeting (Sept. 30, 2026) of the TMI Unit 2 Community Advisory Panel which he currently serves as chairperson.

In the Final Four: Tom Comrey of Susquehanna Township explains how fishing along the Susquehanna brings him peace, especially when his teenaged son joins him.

Susquehanna Scout, hosted by journalist Karen Hendricks, is a weekly podcast by WITF that explores the Susquehanna River and its ripple effects across Pennsylvania and beyond.