Walter Cronkite, on 3
Mile Island
July 21, 2009
The accolades are still pouring in for departed
anchorman Walter Cronkite. Few mention his critical "that's the way it is"
reporting on the atomic melt-down at Three Mile Island. Yet Cronkite and TMI are
at the core of today's de facto moratorium on new reactor construction---which
the industry's new champion, Senator Lamar Alexander, now wants to reverse
through the proposed federal Climate Bill.
Technicians who knew what was happening shook
with terror as Cronkite opened his March 28, 1979, newscast with "the world has
never known a day quite like today. It faced the considerable uncertainties and
dangers of the worst nuclear power plant accident of the Atomic Age. And the
horror tonight is that it could get much worse.." ( http://www.examiner.com/x-14272-70s-Culture-Examiner~y2009m7d18-Walter-Cronkite-reporting-on-Three-Mile-Island
) . (read the whole story,see video’s)
Cronkite went on to say that "experts" had
[wrongly] ruled out the possibility of an explosion. In the ensuing weeks and
years, he did not report what remains one of the most heavily censored secrets
of the nuclear age---that significant radioactive fallout did escape from TMI,
that it scattered randomly throughout the region, that it landed heavily on
certain parts of the downwind population, and that human beings (as well as wild
and farm animals) were killed and maimed in great numbers…..(Remember,
all monitors went off-scale)
………….Nor is it certain that the story of another melt-down today would be fully told…………….Today's nuke-powered Big Lie machine has never been more powerful. Though a few cable reporters might cover the story, only the internet could be counted to carry the load, with high-paid deniers swarming over every independent blog.
But as the backroom horse-trading escalates, it is critical that calls start pouring into Congress
The nation---the world---cannot afford more Three Mile Islands, especially now that Walter Cronkite is no longer around to report on them.
Two video’s Cronkite reporting
I repeat : “Nor is it certain that the story of another melt-down today would be fully told”