Newspaper: The Evening Sentinel

Date: April 3, 1979

Title: Nuclear Crisis at a Glance

Author: United Press International


Harrisburg, Pa.: The crisis at the crippled Three Mile Island nuclear power plant appears to be ceasing, giving state officials added time before a decision is necessary on a precautionary evacuation prior to final reactor closedown attempts.

Harrisburg, Pa.: Civil defense officials say one-third-200,000-of the people living within 20 miles of the crippled Three Mile Island nuclear plant had left the area by Monday.

Washington: The Teamsters union says it will exempt communities near the crippled Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania from its nationwide walkout against the trucking industry.

Moscow: The Soviet Union, in a regularly scheduled television feature, blames the U.S. "energy monopoly" for the accident at Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station.

PARIS: French ecological groups demand an immediate halt to nuclear plant construction, saying the country's reactors are as unsafe as the Harrisburg plant. But French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing scheduled a special cabinet meeting today to approve construction of several new nuclear plants.

Harrisburg, Pa.: Teams from France, West Germany and Belgium, all countries with strong commitments to nuclear power, are flown to the crisis area for on-the-spot investigations of the Three Mile Island accident. Japan soon will follow suit.

Seoul, South Korea: Inspections of South Korea's nuclear facilities, begun as a direct result of the Harrisburg incident, already led to the suspension of operations at South Korea's first nuclear power plant where some radioactivity was leaking into the cooling water.

HARRISBURG: The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia ships millions of dollars in cash by armored truck to Harrisburg area banks to enable them to meet withdrawal demands of voluntary evacuees.

Washington: Rep. Bob Carr, D-Mich., demands that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission tell all it knows about the Three Mile Island power plant malfunction and charges that Pennsylvania Gov. Richard Thornburg "had to be dragged kicking and screaming" toward last Friday's partial evacuation.

New York: Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., says the Pennsylvania nuclear crisis "will inevitably slow the momentum of nuclear power development." In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, he urges all nations to reconsider the risks of nuclear energy.

Farmington, Conn.: American Nuclear Insurers, the firm that insures the Three Mile Island plant says it already has paid $57,000 in liability claims for last week's accident and predicts property damage claims will be "sizeable."

WASHINGTON: Presidential press secretary Jody Powell says he has directed federal agencies working at Three Mile Island to clear their public statements through the White House because there have been conflicting reports that could cause undue public alarm.

New York: General Public Utilities, owner of the Three Mile Island nuclear station, asks the New York Stock Exchange to continue a halt in trading of its stock that began on Friday.