On March 28, 1979, the worst accident in the history of commercial nuclear power in the United States occurred at Three Mile Island. For five days, the citizens of central Pennsylvania and the entire world, amid growing alarm, followed the efforts of authorities to prevent the crippled plant from spewing dangerous quantities of radiation into the environment. This book is a comprehensive account of the causes, context and consequences of the Three Mile Island crisis. J. Samuel Walker captures the high human drama surrounding the accident, sets it in the context of the heated debate over nuclear power in the 1970s and analyses the social, technical and political issues it raised. His account of those frightening and confusing days should clear up misconceptions held to this day about Three Mile Island. The heart of Walker's narrative is a moment-by-moment account of the accident itself, in which he brings to life the players who dealt with the emergency: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the state of Pennsylvania, the White House and a cast of scientists and reporters. He also looks at the aftermath of the accident on the surrounding area, including studies of its long-term health effects on the population, providing a window onto the politics of nuclear power and an authoritative account of a critical event in recent American history.