Q: When you think about this twenty years later, do you blame anyone?
MP: Do I blame anyone? I guess I blame a certain arrogance by the nuclear
industry. Well, things like this can't happen because we have too many safety
systems in place. Well, in fact they did, thank goodness, because they did
work, they did save us from human error, in retrospect. And in retrospect, I'm
not really sure, today, that the utility actually lied. I think that maybe
they didn't realize what they had, or maybe they were exercising some wishful
thinking, hoping it wasn't as bad as it really looked, and realizing that they
had the weight of the entire nuclear industry on their backs. Everybody's now
looking at Three Mile Island and if this baby blows, nuclear energy is done. If
I was in that situation and I'm running the utility, I may want to put a good
spin on it. So yeah, I blame them for doing that, I think they should have
been more forthright in the first place.
I don't really fault the government a whole lot. I think the Governor did a
pretty good job for a guy who had just taken office. He seemed to be able to
take charge, and I guess I feel pretty good about how they responded.
I don't think people who lived there felt sure of any blame or responsibility
for any of this. I think that once it happened, it was, oh, look at those
Three Mile Island people, look what they've done to us. But prior to that, we
never gave it a thought. It was, you know, we turned, you throw the light
switch on, and if the lights work, you're happy. If they don't work, well,
that's another matter.
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