Recent news of Three Mile Island reopening to provide electricity for Microsoft’s data centers and AI servers takes me back to 1979 when I was nine years old. I don’t remember a lot from that year, but two seemingly unrelated yet deeply connected events occurred that year that made the child version of me terrified of nuclear power.

The China Syndrome

The first was the release of The China Syndrome on March 16, 1979. It was a blockbuster film starring Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, and Jack Lemmon. The movie depicted a terrifying near-meltdown at a nuclear power plant. Its title referred to a hypothetical scenario where a reactor meltdown could cause the core to melt through the Earth and, theoretically, reach China. (For the record, China isn’t directly opposite the U.S. on the globe—that point is actually in the South Pacific, west of Australia. Here’s an IFOD on that point.)

I remember the intense media coverage of the film and my parents talking about how frighteningly realistic it seemed. For a kid, hearing that adults were worried was enough to make it all the more terrifying.

The Three Mile Island Meltdown

Just twelve days after the movie’s release, on March 28, 1979, the second event happened—the partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. A series of mechanical failures and operator errors led to a stuck coolant valve, which allowed reactor coolant to escape. Without enough coolant, the reactor core began to overheat, eventually melting part of the uranium fuel.

Roughly half of the reactor’s core melted before the coolant flow was restored, and radiation was released, potentially exposing around 2 million people in the surrounding area. It was, and remains, the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history. The cleanup process took 14 years and cost around $1 billion.

How the Events of 1979 Changed Nuclear Power in the U.S.

Before these two incidents, nuclear power in the U.S. was on a steep upward trajectory. In the 1960s and 70s, nuclear energy was viewed as the answer to the country’s growing energy needs, especially in light of the 1973 oil crisis.

Nuclear plants were being built rapidly, and both the government and the public saw nuclear power as a clean, modern, and efficient energy source. Scientists and engineers had confidence in the technology’s safety, and while there were concerns about waste disposal and environmental impacts, the general optimism about nuclear energy overshadowed these worries.

But after The China Syndrome and the Three Mile Island accident, everything changed. Public opinion shifted dramatically, with safety, environmental risks, and potential health effects becoming the dominant concerns. The eerie coincidence of a Hollywood film coming to life made nuclear power seem far more dangerous in the public eye, and fear spread quickly. “Public support for nuclear energy fell from an all-time high of 69% in 1977 to 46% in 1979. The accident inspired a 1979 protest of nuclear energy in New York City that attracted an estimated 200,000 people.” Source.

In response, the U.S. government ramped up regulations. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) implemented stricter safety standards and tightened oversight of existing plants. This drove up costs and created significant delays for new construction, making it far more difficult and expensive to build nuclear plants.

As a result, the construction of new nuclear plants virtually stopped. While existing plants continued to operate, many projects under construction were canceled, and few new ones were started. Through the 1980s and 1990s, the nuclear industry in the U.S. stagnated, struggling to regain public trust. The 1986 Chernobyl disaster only reinforced global fears about nuclear energy.

A Long Shadow

The events of 1979 cast a long shadow over the nuclear industry in the U.S., one still felt today. While nuclear technology has advanced and is seen by some as a solution to climate change, public distrust and regulatory hurdles remain significant barriers.

Is the reopening of Three Mile Island a harbinger of a shift back towards nuclear power? Time will tell.