1979 - Report of Commission on THE ACCIDENT AT THREE MILE ISLAND

On March 28, 1979, the United States experienced the worst accident in the history of commercial nuclear power generation. Two weeks later, the President of the United States established a Presidential Commission. The President charged the 12-member Commission as follows:

The purpose of the Commission is to conduct a comprehensive study and investigation of the recent accident involving the nuclear power facility on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. The Commission's study and investigation shall include:

(a) a technical assessment

(b) an analysis of the role of the managing utility;

(c) an assessment of the emergency preparedness and response

of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other federal, state,

and local authorities;

(d) an evaluation of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's

licensing, inspection, operation, and enforcement procedures

as applied to this facility;

(e) an assessment of how the public's right to information

concerning the events at TMI was served and of the steps which

should be taken during similar emergencies to provide the

public with accurate, comprehensible, and timely information;

and

(f) appropriate recommendations based upon the Commission's

findings.

The conclusion:

"To prevent nuclear accidents as serious as Three Mile Island, fundamental changes will be necessary in the organization, procedures, and practices -- and above all -- in the attitudes of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and, to the extent that the institutions we investigated are typical, of the nuclear industry."