Three Mile Island

noun

1. an island in the Susquehanna River, near Middletown, Pennsylvania, SE of Harrisburg: scene of a near-disastrous accident at a nuclear plant in 1979 that raised the issue of nuclear-energy safety.

Three Mile Island

¹

1. The location of an accident in 1979 in a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania . The plant underwent a partial meltdown that resulted in some radiation leakage into the atmosphere , panic among nearby residents, losses of billions of dollars, and intense criticism of nuclear power programs in general.

Three Mile Island

²

1. The location of an accident in 1979 in a nuclear power plant — an electrical generator powered by a nuclear reactor — in Pennsylvania . The plant underwent a partial meltdown that resulted in very little leakage of radiation into the atmosphere , panic among nearby residents, losses of billions of dollars, and intense criticism of nuclear power programs in general. ( Compare Chernobyl .)

Example Sentences

In September, Microsoft signed a 20-year deal to buy power from Constellation Energy, which will lead to the reopening of the infamous Three Mile Island power station in Pennsylvania – the site of the worst nuclear accident in US history, where a reactor suffered a partial meltdown in 1979.

From BBC

“When you look at Three Mile Island restarting — that was something nobody would have ever even thought of.”

From Los Angeles Times

The infusion of new talent and ideas is a significant change from when Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island disaster in 1979 and the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986 devastated the industry.

From Los Angeles Times

Old-school environmentalists “grew up in the generation of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. ... The Gen Zers today did not,” said David Weisman, 63, who has been involved in the movement to get Diablo Canyon shut down since the ’90s and works as the legislative director of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility.

From Los Angeles Times

“They don’t remember how paralyzed with fright the nation was the week after Three Mile Island. ... They don’t recall the shock of Chernobyl less than seven years later.”

From Los Angeles Times