TMI 35 years later
“[I’m originally from] Buffalo, New York. Graduated from high school there and went to school in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Allegheny College, that’s what got me into the state— it started my career in that area as a reporter right out of college about 40 years ago. It was 1974 right when I was getting my first job.”
“So it was a big issue— they had a governor’s energy council here. They had a plan to build energy parks in rural areas, with clusters of about 6 nuclear and coal-fire plants at the same location. It’s hard to conceive of today, but it was serious. There were hearings and meetings and people were going nuts over it. The rural areas. Never got anywhere ‘cause of popular opposition. As a first year reporter, it helped show the passions of the issue.”
“Well, I had only been there for 5 weeks. I’d just gotten the job [and] moved here. No one was ordering me to cover [TMI]. For the first night I went down, I went down to see it— I had a friend and I asked him to drive me down. There were people in moon suits taking radiation readings the first night.”
“Well, I had only been there for 5 weeks. I’d just gotten the job [and] moved here. No one was ordering me to cover [TMI]. For the first night I went down, I went down to see it— I had a friend and I asked him to drive me down. There were people in moon suits taking radiation readings the first night.”
“Especially the first days, you had more and more people coming in, you know, to bolster the bureaus. At that time, the governor used to have these press conferences, and they would provide transcripts— they would type them up, bring them down within two hours. They stopped it shortly after.
[But] I saved them. And in these files, briefings, you can see how they would bring in these technocrats from DER. Well, reporters didn’t really understand the basic notion of it, ok? The technocrats, they weren’t talking to each other.”
“Well, I had only been there for 5 weeks. I’d just gotten the job [and] moved here. No one was ordering me to cover [TMI]. For the first night I went down, I went down to see it— I had a friend and I asked him to drive me down. There were people in moon suits taking radiation readings the first night.”
"We didn’t know enough to ask— especially the first day or two. But then, in the next few days we started seeing people with a scientific background getting in the Harrisburg reporters [writings], the major papers. The questions got more sharp."
“Well, I had only been there for 5 weeks. I’d just gotten the job [and] moved here. No one was ordering me to cover [TMI]. For the first night I went down, I went down to see it— I had a friend and I asked him to drive me down. There were people in moon suits taking radiation readings the first night.”
“I wasn’t writing about the scientific stuff of TMI. I was doing the impact on people [who] live here, evacuation orders, what the governor was saying— it was still oriented toward the public response. You know, the monitoring. I wasn’t writing about the actual meltdown.”
“One of the interesting things about early on: the second day, Scranton and Thornburgh, were sent in and weren’t trusting what the company was telling them. They said they ‘have reason to doubt what we’re being told is correct.’ They were being frank, I thought. They were trying to tell us what they knew. Thornburgh said his press secretary had been a reporter, so he made him a reporter again to figure out what was going on.”
“Well, I had only been there for 5 weeks. I’d just gotten the job [and] moved here. No one was ordering me to cover [TMI]. For the first night I went down, I went down to see it— I had a friend and I asked him to drive me down. There were people in moon suits taking radiation readings the first night.”
"Because, you know, it was the siren going off, and the mist, and reporters running up to the press office and the newsroom wondering what was going on.”
“The fear and panic had been building day-by-day— this started Wednesday. By Friday, it was in full panic mode."
“Well, I had only been there for 5 weeks. I’d just gotten the job [and] moved here. No one was ordering me to cover [TMI]. For the first night I went down, I went down to see it— I had a friend and I asked him to drive me down. There were people in moon suits taking radiation readings the first night.”
“There was another press conference the second day that TMI had over at Hershey— that almost turned into a riot. That one went outta control. They were saying stuff and people were just not believing it."
"That was the last one they had."
"Back then, in the newsrooms, they used to have what they call Teletype Machines. They had these scrolls of yellow paper and the news would come out over that. When bells would go off you knew something big had happened."
"That Friday before Denton came, the bells went off and we went over and read it— outta Washington— the National Regulatory [Commission] was saying that TMI was in imminent danger of a meltdown. We were sitting here, reading it in Harrisburg."
"So Denton had a press conference at about 10 o’clock on a Friday night. They used to have an old media center— really small room up on top floor of the capitol. And I can remember waiting for that. The click of the cameras… in the old days, the cameras would make a clicking noise and it was almost intense the way he walked out there; no one had seen him [before]. He was able to start relaying information in a more folksy style. A calming style from the start. Denton was a real change in terms of just trying to understand it. I had no reason to doubt him."
"The United Press was talking about a meltdown fear. It was later, I think, later on you were getting the [hydrogen] bubble story. [It] was developing later that day maybe even. So that might have been what Denton was addressing when he first got here, into that Saturday and Sunday."
So Denton had a press conference at about 10 o’clock on a Friday night. They used to have an old media center— really small room up on top floor of the capitol. And I can remember waiting for that. The click of the cameras… in the old days, the cameras would make a clicking noise and it was almost intense the way he walked out there; no one had seen him [before]. He was able to start relaying information in a more folksy style. A calming style from the start. Denton was a real change in terms of just trying to understand it. I had no reason to doubt him.
The UPI, the United Press, was talking about a meltdown fear. It was later, I think, later on you were getting the [hydrogen] bubble story. [It] was developing later that day maybe even. So that might have been what Denton was addressing when he first got here, into that Saturday and Sunday.
"The streets of Harrisburg were basically deserted."
"You were at home at night wondering what the hell was going on."
"By Friday you didn’t see many people around. We were in a little bubble. You knew that things were out of control."
So Denton had a press conference at about 10 o’clock on a Friday night. They used to have an old media center— really small room up on top floor of the capitol. And I can remember waiting for that. The click of the cameras… in the old days, the cameras would make a clicking noise and it was almost intense the way he walked out there; no one had seen him [before]. He was able to start relaying information in a more folksy style. A calming style from the start. Denton was a real change in terms of just trying to understand it. I had no reason to doubt him.
The UPI, the United Press, was talking about a meltdown fear. It was later, I think, later on you were getting the [hydrogen] bubble story. [It] was developing later that day maybe even. So that might have been what Denton was addressing when he first got here, into that Saturday and Sunday.
"I was with the UPI bureau chief, I was sorta watching him. You know, if they were leaving, I was leaving. I remember he walked out one night and had a duffle bag and I said, ‘whoa, where are you going?’ Today I’d probably get out. I’d of been out of there in a minute. But back then you really didn’t know."
"You’re young in your career. It’s a big story, so you wanna be here for it. There were reporters I knew who had hoped to get [on] TV you know, [but] didn’t make it. Thought that this was gonna get them on TV. I remember that."
"The Inquirer got to send a team of 30 people and they got a Pulitzer. We didn’t really have that. Y’know, just the two of us on our own. I wasn’t writing the lead story or anything. Those kind of stories were the product of numerous reporters. We were writing more of the sidebar stuff. But the historian part of me knew to save the stuff."
"I’m definitely more skeptical of the science. Personally, there’s always [TMI]— when we were looking to buy a house, we made sure we were outside of the ten mile radius. It bugs me that it’s still open.I think it’s outrageous that it didn’t close. "
"I think there was an advisory referendum on that, maybe 1983— I probably voted in that to close it."
"Nuclear… we’ve still got four or five nuclear plants and you don’t see much protest. TMI stopped any more from being built. I don’t know, had it [not] happened, how many more would there be. The long-term economics of it don’t look good, so that’s what it did. Who knows? If there had been more, which one would’ve gone wrong, y’know? It’s more that something didn’t happen, in a sense."
"I think people in this area tolerate TMI. There’s new subdivisions going down in that 10 mile zone, which is something. I said I’m not going to live in the 10 mile zone. We were very conscious of that when we were buying the house. I wanna be away from it. But people are moving down there— Swatara Township. So in this area, which is weird; they seem to accept it."
"Nuclear… I mean, we’ve still got four or five nuclear plants and you don’t see much protest. I mean, TMI stopped any more from being built. I don’t know, had it [not] happened, how many more would there be. The long-term economics of it don’t look good, so that’s what it did. Who knows? If there had been more, which one would’ve gone wrong, y’know? It’s more that something didn’t happen, in a sense."
"They were gonna locate a site here in Pennsylvania [for radioactive waste disposal]. But, to me, it was all the energy department that was dumping it in a rural area, and they knew that. They spent 10 years whittling down sites between two governors until they pulled the plug on it in 1995. It never left me that sometimes you see things collapse under their own weight."
"Nuclear… I mean, we’ve still got four or five nuclear plants and you don’t see much protest. I mean, TMI stopped any more from being built. I don’t know, had it [not] happened, how many more would there be. The long-term economics of it don’t look good, so that’s what it did. Who knows? If there had been more, which one would’ve gone wrong, y’know? It’s more that something didn’t happen, in a sense."
"Since then, I’ve done a lot of things about the environment [with] an economic focus. I did a gas drilling story back in the early 80’s, long before Marcellus Shale. There was a gas boom out in northwest PA and they were passing the first laws ‘cause there was a promise in it. So, I remember doing that and the tug of war between the environment and the economy— that’s a theme I’ve often wrote about in the time I’ve been here."
"Nuclear… I mean, we’ve still got four or five nuclear plants and you don’t see much protest. I mean, TMI stopped any more from being built. I don’t know, had it [not] happened, how many more would there be. The long-term economics of it don’t look good, so that’s what it did. Who knows? If there had been more, which one would’ve gone wrong, y’know? It’s more that something didn’t happen, in a sense."
"Governor Casey— who I covered— was one of the strongest environmental governors we had. One reason was that he came out of the coal region. You drive up there and see waste banks of coal and the streams polluted."
"There was a strong sense that the coal companies got away with it."
"In the northeast, there’s a gut feeling that they don’t want a repeat of what the coal companies did."
"Casey was one of the ones pushing for environmental programs, more so than any governor I’ve covered."
"Nuclear… I mean, we’ve still got four or five nuclear plants and you don’t see much protest. I mean, TMI stopped any more from being built. I don’t know, had it [not] happened, how many more would there be. The long-term economics of it don’t look good, so that’s what it did. Who knows? If there had been more, which one would’ve gone wrong, y’know? It’s more that something didn’t happen, in a sense."
"Then you go over to northwest PA, where I grew up, where I started my career— and you have this almost absent public opinion. I think the reason is they obviously have the oil industry: natural gas, shallow gas wells— but that’s all hidden by the forest."
"The forests have regrown from what it was a hundred years ago, so people don’t see the damage in that area. So, you have a different attitude. Where, in the northeast, you see the damages. We see the landscape ruined."
"Nuclear… I mean, we’ve still got four or five nuclear plants and you don’t see much protest. I mean, TMI stopped any more from being built. I don’t know, had it [not] happened, how many more would there be. The long-term economics of it don’t look good, so that’s what it did. Who knows? If there had been more, which one would’ve gone wrong, y’know? It’s more that something didn’t happen, in a sense."
"You know, PA is governed by its history—more so than most states. Going back to Penn, he instated a Quaker state, which came with religious toleration— that was huge. He set aside large tracts of land to be preserved. He was lightyears beyond his peers. He was environmentally-minded."
"Now, he also owned slaves and divided the land into, essentially, feudal chunks. See, that feudal division gave rise to many diverse state governments, making PA a very hard place to reform."
"I looked to I. F. Stone. I was attracted by his writing, plus his ability to write about a lot of different subjects very well. Science, too. His bi-weekly magazine [work], I read most of that in the public libraries in Buffalo. I also spent a day with him in D.C. I went down and visited him. It was in his house; took him out for Chinese dinner or, he took me out, I should say. That was a real high point for me."
Story of a PA Statehouse Reporter: RB Swift
“One thing that happened when I worked the first year of my job turned out to be related to energy. There was a major controversy in Pennsylvania, this would be 1975, over energy parks."
"Now, I was 20, 21 [when] the energy crisis was big news.The oil embargo, gas rationing— it was an economy going into decline right when I’m trying to find my first job.”
RB Swift regularly contributes to a Franklin & Marshall political history blog. Check out his work here.