Three Mile Island carnage covered up for 30 years

Nuclear power has become sacred to our political "leaders." The McCain campaign even said nuclear energy was a green technology. Kentucky lawmakers are trying to gut rules that have prohibited nuke plants from being built in the state.

Seven years before Chernobyl, Pennsylvanians were confronted with the disaster at Three Mile Island. The official story was that the 1979 incident caused no real damage, let alone any deaths of humans or pets. Industry big shots ran slick magazine ads crying about being the biggest victims themselves because of whatever bad press the meltdown did generate.

But the official story is a Big Lie. It's taken 30 years for the truth to come out, but at long last, it's emerging. Years ago, I saw a photo of an eyeless dog whose condition was attributed to the meltdown, but other details of the damage have been mostly hushed up until now.

Radiation from the Three Mile Island accident killed pets and farm animals for miles around. There were plenty of human costs as well. Ten miles away from the meltdown, a woman's kidney practically vanished. Cancer rates soared in the surrounding valley. Babies were born with serious deformities. In addition, valuable plants were destroyed.

The cover-up is extensive. The would-be writers of a book about the Three Mile Island accident were later run off the road in their car. One of them was killed, and the manuscript for the book vanished from the car's trunk.

Through it all, however, lawmakers continue to insist nuclear power is the safest form of energy.

Energy companies are now seeking to build 26 nuclear reactors across the country - the first new applications since the Three Mile Island disaster. In Georgia, legislators actually approved a law to force utility customers (such as average households) to pay for the reactors that are about to be built in that state. In Florida and South Carolina, folks have also seen an increase in their bills to pay for new reactors.

The real costs, however, may be in the illnesses and deaths that are sure to result the next time there's a meltdown.

If you happen to find a phone book for Campbell County, Kentucky, from the '80s - before the Zimmer plant converted from nuclear to coal - it may feature a terrifying map. This map showed a nuclear cloud covering much of the county and gave detailed instructions on how to evacuate in case there was a meltdown at Zimmer.

Many locals who are my age grew up with that map, and the renewed interest in nuclear power should send a shiver up the spine of all of us.

What excuses are the nuke apologists going to come up with to defend this dangerous form of energy now?

(Source: http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/04/post-4.html)