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Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant To Close, Latest Symbol Of Struggling Industry

Unit 2 has been shut down for 40 years, of course, and Unit 1 will close in a few months.

Pennsylvania nuclear reactors have been losing money for years, and their owners asked the legislature for subsidies. But the Republicans love natural gas and the Democrats push for renewable energy, so nuclear is an orphan.

I was in Connecticut during the 3MI emergency, and I made the mistake of seeing The China Syndrome. When Dr. Lowell explained why a meltdown is called the China syndrome, and it could destroy an area the size of Pennsylvania, the audience shuddered.

It will be decades before the 3MI site can be used for anything else.

My grandfather lived across the Susquehanna River but only about a mile as the crow flies from TMI and he felt like the people in the immediate area were the least informed people in the world. He was an antique dealer and packed his van to the gills with as much of his goods and cash as it could carry as well as a suitcase and evacuated and told my grandmother to "take a good look at the house [which he had had built to his exact design as a gift to her], we might never see it again."

I was at Penn State. Not just across the river but close enough. Scary times.