Gone Fission Teri E. Jarvie, CMP Vice President of Member Programs, Association Forum of Chicagoland
I was working for the American Nuclear Society, which is a professional association of people primarily involv- ing nuclear power. It’s not a trade association — it’s actu- al scientists, researchers, and etc. After [the] Three Mile Island [core meltdown in 1979],
there was a lot of new technology created in order to get into that reactor, to analyze what happened — there were robotics, all kinds of things that were created on the fly to react to what happened. All of that outcome was re- ally positive; it gave us tools and things that the industry never had before. So probably 10 years after Three Mile Island, when we had our annual meeting in Washington, D.C., we devoted a portion of the meeting to that technol- ogy. As a part of that, we thought it would be really cool to organize a tour to Three Mile Island. Of course it sold out; everybody wanted to go. It was
just so funny, because when we called the bus compa- ny and said, “Oh yes, and then we need you to drive to Harrisburg, Pa., for Three Mile Island,” the reaction was just so bizarre. There wasn’t really any resistance; I think it was more just, “You’re kidding, right?” And es-
104 pcma convene January 2012
pecially, people outside the industry, when you say those words, immediately they think of apocalypse and disas- ter and scary — and it was none of those. The external site looked exactly like it did the day be-
fore it happened. It all happened internally, and afterward the system worked, it was contained; there was no China Syndrome or any of the other worst-case scenarios. It was such a success story that that was part of what we want- ed to tell: the fact that the containment held and then we learned so much as a result of it. So on the day of the tour, we’re leaving from the Sher-
aton Washington — and there were probably 25 to 30 people standing outside hoping someone wouldn’t show up, so that they could get on that bus, too. Everybody wanted to go. The demand was huge. Tours of nuclear power plants were commonplace for
us. That was not a big deal. But when attendees returned from this, it was kind of like a tour of the Grand Canyon at sunset or something. They were like, “once-in-a-life- time experience” — they were so excited. — As told to Hunter R. Slaton