The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 8

A-8 Pittsbur9h Press Sun-' APril 1979 A Puff Of Dangerous Steam A Sianal For Nuclear Disaster -4 i If- sir I 1m 111 vV aCiii "lw Dozens of journalists from newspapers, television and radio mill around, either filming, shooting pictures, or thrusting microphones into the faces of reluctant and sometimes angry officials. State police and plant guards shoo away the curious, but allow the team of newsmen to stick around and cool their heels. Some climb an observation platform built for tourists to take a better look. A lot of people are milling around, but few are doing anything. From the observation tower the plant can be clearly seen on the lW-mile long island in the middle of the Susquehanna River, colored brown because of spring runoffs.

At some places the water runs swiftly, churning up a small surf as it drops off a small waterfall. The two reactors, looking like small silos, except that they are constructed of concrete, are located on either side of the main building, also concrete. The cooling towers are located on either side of the reactors two to each side, with the south side housing the trouble-plagued No. 2 reactor. Support buildings, resembling warehouses, are painted aqua.

Nobody is wandering around the grounds. The island is accessible by two bridges, one located at each end, and those few who are allowed on the site first must pass through a roadblock-checkpoint manned by armed guards. Those coming off the island have to undergo a Geiger counter check before being cleared. In nearby Middletown, Stapleton's "survival food" sign drew attention. The proprietor of the Sentinel Arms a burly young man with a red beard, said he had a $100,000 inventory of rations with a 20-year storage life.

He said he has sold more than $600 worth of food since the accident Wednesday. "I expected something like this a long time ago," Stapleton said. "Anytime you are playing with fire, it's good to have the Vaseline the ointment on hand." The NRC set up two trailers at the site, including a mobile radiation lab, to augment the operations center already operating at NRC headquarters in Washington. Radiation and environmental specialists who normally monitor the nation's nuclear testing program flew to Pennsylvania to ring the crippled plant with radiation sampling stations. By Friday evening, thousands had left the affected area most to go to the homes of friends or families and almost 200 reported to emergency shelters set up by Civil Defense authorities.

But while some were frantically packing to get away, one woman calmly walked her cocker spaniel only 500 yards from the plant and two 11-year-olds rode their new 10-speed racing bikes along Pennsylvania Highway 441, seemingly oblivious of the governor's warning to stay inside. The Siplings quickly packed and drove off to stay with relatives in Marietta, about seven miles from their home. On Friday, the temperature shot into the low 80s, the warmest day since last October, but not many people were outside enjoying the fine spring weather. Many stayed inside and complained of the heat because they were afraid to open their windows. This was the scene yesterday: From the Sipling's kitchen window, the plant's four giant cooling stacks a half mile away look peaceful and serene at tbe end of two grain fields waiting to be tilled before spring planting.

The area around Harrisburg is one of the best farm areas on the East Coast of the United States a stretch of rolling hill country scattered with small forest groves. But this serenity uces not last long. Soon a state police or a government helicopter comes in for a landing at the end of the field where NRC and Metropolitan Edison workers have set up a sort of a command post. BOUND FOR THREE MILE ISLAND to aid in the re- site Friday by Calgon will be placed in the vessels and moval of hazardous methyl iodide from vapors at the the vapors drawn through them. The methyl iodide will nuclear power plant were four large vessels transport- be trapped by the purifying carbon beds and the va- ed on tractor-trailers from Calgon Corp.

in Robinson pors discharged to other containers, a Calgon official Township yesterday. Granular carbon shipped to the explained. Explosion Worry Hangs Over Plant 1 1 iiUs'J'f j. 4 V-W i i vif Vv 4- -f I r. tl'i-i ys Sit And Wait tense atmosphere by declaring he was "going to the post office while it's stili there." But nobody laughed.

At the Central High School gymnasium shelter here, Mrs. Mildred Benson had a matronly air in her starched Red Cross uniform as she prepared for streams of refugees. But by noon yesterday only 24 had showed up. Around the gym, youngsters, returning from breakfast in the school cafeteria, shot baskets and ran races, seemingly oblivious to what might be happening elsewhere. Wind To Keep District Clear Of Radiation Prevailing wind currents today are expected to keep the Southwestern Pennsylvania area clear of radiation emitted from the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg.

The National Weather Service says the wind is expected to continue blowing from a southwest and westerly direction. N-Evacuees (Continued from Page A-1) significant. "And we didn't have anywhere else to go" Still others, like the Robert Pierces and Gayle Millers, sat on their front porches in Goldsboro and stared at the huge generating towers now sitting silently in the middle of the Susquehanna River. "You think I'm not scared? Hey, I'm plenty scared," Pierce admitted. "But I ain't leaving 'til they tell us to.

Where is there to go? What's the point?" The bond tying them all together yesterday was the waiting. Waiting for the governor to tell them to evacuate. Or for "the officials" to sound the all-clear and say the plant was cool. Or waiting "for the thing to go off." "It's like the spirit of death hanging over us," Pierce said in all sincerity, but hinting he may have been waxing melodramatic for the caravans of news crews streaming through the area. George Snyderman tried to break the (Continued from Page A-1) Pennsylvania.

One of the fears of scientists is that if the temperatures are lowered too rapid- ly, the bubble will block the cooling system. That blockage would cause the core to heat up quickly and could trigger a meltdown. Howard Denton, the NRC's official on the scene, said plant and NRC officials were debating which of the as-yet untested methods of resolving the crisis was best to use. A fateful decision was expected within a few days. Case, deputy director of reactor regulations for the NRC, said explosion possibilities stem from a buildup of oxygen in the reactor vessel.

If that level gets too high, it mixes with the hydrogen bubble, increasing the chance for a major explosion. Scientists also were closely watching the amount of hydrogen in the main confinement building of the plant. If the hy-drogren level should get over 4 percent, it would become an explosive mixture. "They don't dare let that happen," one expert said. There were conflicting reports on the hydrogen level.

One report put it near 4 percent, and another about 1.7 percent of the atmosphere inside the containment building. NRC officials were saying, however, that the hydrogen content was well under 4 percent. Denton and a spokesman for Metropolitan Edison, which operates the plant, conceded yesterday that an explosion occurred inside the plant's confinement building. They said the explosion accounted for the uncontrolled release of radiation Friday morning. Levels 600 feet above the plant were measured at an unprecedented 1,200 millirems.

Denton also said that a preliminary estimate indicates that 25 to 50 percent of the facility's nuclear fuel has been damaged. The utility estimates that only 6 to 14 percent was affected. A utility official said that the plant is like a giant tea kettle, continuously leaking small amounts of radioactive gas into the atmosphere. The leaks led to Gov. Dick Thorn-burgh's recommendation that all pregnant women and pre-school children be evacuated from a 5-mile radius around the plant.

Earlier at a separate news briefing, Met-Ed Vice President John Herbein said the firm believed the crisis was over at its nuclear plant. The nagging bubble in the core threatened to expose and damage more uranium-fuel rods. It hindered desperate plant engineers who tried to put the cold shutdown of the core into effect. Met-Ed said the steam bubble had decreased by one-third its Friday size, but NRC was not so sure. Meanwhile, Denton said radiation would continue to leak indefinitely into the atmosphere from the reactor site.

Met-Ed said chances were decreased that another radioactive plume would (Continued from Page A-1) they let me in." Pennsylvania authorities were notified at 7 a.m., and an expanded general emergency was declared a little more than an hour later. The public was notified, but state police spokesman Thomas Lyon said "the report is that there is no radiation leak." At noon Wednesday, eight hours after the initial failure, Don Curry, official spokesman for the Metropolitan Edison the utility that operates the plant, said: "This is not a nuclear problem. This is a pump problem. When somebody slips on a banana peel inside a nuclear power plant, some people want to call it a nuclear accident." There was joking early on. A high, state government official told newsmen they might go down to "Three Mile Island where I understand they serve excellent fission chips." But as the day wore on, the serious nature of the situation began to emerge.

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Frank Ingram in Washington said the accident appeared to be one of the worst at a nuclear power plant. Sen. Gary Hart, reported after an NRC briefing that human error appar ently was a factor. By Thursday, NRC officials were certain they had never faced a more serious power plant emergency.

For the public, and for reporters, there was a welter of conflicting information. Individual government officials, utility spokesmen and private experts tended to be accurate on some points and incorrect on others. Solid information of any kind was scarce. Dr. Charles Gallina, an NRC investigator at the scene, said at one point that low levels of radioactive gas were continuing to escape into the atmosphere through an exhaust system in an auxiliary reactor building.

Richard Kling-man, a Met-Ed spokesman, said the leaks had been stopped. Gallina was right that time. Gallina. contradicting Hart's statement of the previous evening, also said there was no evidence of human error. In that he turned out to be wrong, with later information suggesting perhaps four cases of human error ranging from dumping radioactive water the wrong place to premature cooling water shutoff.

White House spokesman Jody Powell announced it appeared "none of the workers received more than a portion of permissible levels." The NRC announced two workers had gotten the full three-month limit of exposure and, later, said they actually had exceeded the limit. State officials said radiation inside the plant did not reach lethal levels. The Union of Concerned Scientists, a private nuclear safety group and one of the best early sources of information, said it was eight times the lethal level in the unmanned reactor room. The UCS proved right. By early Friday morning the furor seemed to have subsided.

Thornburgh, in his first public statement, had told Pennsylvanians the night before: "There is no cause for alarm, nor any reason to disrupt your daily routine, nor any reason to feel that the public health has been affected." NRC officials had reassurred members of Congress there was no cause for alarm. Then, at 8:42 a.m. Friday, another big, uncontrolled plume of radiation was released. The radiation levels were higher than expected 1,200 millirems, or the equivalent of 40 chest X-rays, according to Civil Defense reports 'in the plant area; 350 millirems according to nuclear industry officials. That release, heard by reporters and by many residents near the plant, touched off a dramatic response the dispatch of federal evacuation experts, nuclear specialists and a presidential representative and the evacuation, although it was not called that, of pregnant women and little children who could be most affected by cumulative radiation exposure.

UPI photographer Michael Feldman and I were standing on a hilltop overlooking the plant at 8:42 a.m., watching the rolling countryside disappear in the mist of a hazy but warm morning. Feldman swore lightly, complaining it was almost impossible to take photos of the four cooling towers at the stricken plant because of the weather. Suddenly, I heard what sounded like a jet plane revving up for takeoff. But when I looked up in the sky it was empty not even the government helicopters, which had been constantly circling the plant, were in the air at that minute. The sound came from the plant itself.

I had spoken earlier to residents of the area about the plant, and many had complained about a noise just like a jet plane flying low whenever the plant blew steam out of its cooling stacks. A little later we dropped in on Mark and Julie Sipling, a young couple, and their 13-montb old daughter, Debbie. They rent a farm house from Merle Gruber, who runs the farm complete witn 6b pigs, 23 steer and 21 heifers a half mile from the power station and about 10 miles southeast of Harrisburg. An announcement came over the Si-pling's radio that Thornburgh was asking all residents near the plant to close their windows and doors and stay inside. The Civil Defense broadcast, blaring over the stereo, said: "Stay calm, don't panic and don't evacuate." An hour later the governor recommended that pregnant women and preschoolers be evacuated from a five-mile wide area around the site.

Unborn babies and young children are the most vulnerable to body cell damage caused by radiation. There was quick reaction from Washington. White House press secretary Jody Powell said President Carter believed the incident "will probably lead inexorably toward even more stringent safety design mecnanisms and standards." And Hart promised his Senate sub committee on ajiclear regulation would Press Pholo by Donald J. Slelier UPI Telepholo to improve view of nuclear plant nuclear power plant in American history. Thornburgh suspended his recommended curfew for 150,000 residents to stay indoors because of what plant and NRC authorities said was continued low-level radiation seepage from the accident scene.

George Miller, Middletown chief of police, estimated over 2,000 of the town's 11,000 residents chose to evacuate. Half of Goldsboro's 600 residents left, too. Many of those who didn't leave planned to if reports got worse. "Most people I know did what I did. They packed their bags, filled the car with gas.

and waited," said Delbert Hippie, of Middletown, who lives a few miles from the plant. "I'm still keeping my bags packed." James Cox. spokesman for the state police, said it was impossible to say exactly how many central Pennsylvanians were staying home because of their concern about radiation hazards. About 13,000 live within a few miles of the accident site. Lt.

Gov. William Scranton III told evacuees in Hershey. "There is no cause for alarm. There currently are emissions going out but not at a dangerous level. The reactor core is stable.

But it has to be cooled down. "We are not out of danger yet," he added. Blood Count (Compiled bv Central Blood Bank) Pints needed for hospital patients this week 2,157. Donors scheduled for this week Donors still needed this week to meet the demand' 302. Central Blood Bank community drives will be held this week in Brid-geville.

Castle Shannon, Downtown Pittsburgh, East Liberty, McMur-ray, Mt. Lebanon, Mount Washington, North Side Pittsburgh and Penn Hills. To schedule an appointment or to become an on-call donor, phone 456-1980 if vou live in Allegheny County or 228-8500 if you live in Washington Countv. hi She Knows About vPoison What's up. What's down.

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Saks Fifth Avenue at Mellon Square Store Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, fridjy, jnd Saturday, 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM Open Ktond.iv and Thursday, 9:30 AM to 9 PM. 4 1, Young spectators used binoculars burst accidentally into the atmosphere. Friday's contingency plans, which included a plan to evacuate one million persons if necessary, were triggered by such an uncontrolled burst. Thornburgh visited civil defense care shelters where over 200 pregnant women and small children and their families were staying after the governor advised them to flee because of their particular susceptibility to cancer from the radiation leaks. He kept in effect yesterday his recommendation they remain away from the plant.

Denton has said cancer rates would increase at least minimally around the scene of what the NRC called "easily the most serious" accident of a commercial calls from concerned parents. The physician is recommending that parents follow guidelines set out by state officials. "I'm three months pregnant," Karen Cole told a reporter at the Hershey center. "The doctors tell me they don't see any problem. They don't think it will affect my baby in any way." She stayed overnight at the center with her two children.

The evacuation centers have had a circus air, with reporters from Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Japan and Great Britain among those who have interviewed and re-interviewed everyone in sight. Adding to the bizarre air was the announcement by Metropolitan Edison, which manages the power plant, that its two insurance companies are going to the centers to accept claims from displaced persons. The Hershey center was visited in the afternoon by Thornburgh, his wife, Lt. Grv. William Scranton III and his pregnant wife, Coral.

"Of course if you're expecting a baby you have to be concerned," said Mrs. Scranton. "It doesn't matter if you live 5 miles away or 25 miles away We just don't know about these things." Taking the microphone at the Hershey center. Thornburgh said: "I wish you godspeed. You are very much in our prayers.

We are proud of you" (Continued from Page A-1) in central Pennsylvania lies ahead. Nuclear experts say there are serious risks in cooling the badly damaged reactor. But in a state that has seen massive evacuations in the face of floods, there is deep concern but little evidence of panic." Evacuation centers in Hershey and North York, where there were only 24 people yesterday, expected greater numbers than showed up. In Middletown. a borough of 11.000 three miles south of the nuclear plant, Mayor Robert Reid described townspeople as jumpy and edgy.

But yesterday local stores were doing business as usual. Reid has imposed a 9 p.m.-to-7 a m. curfew and added extra police to protect the homes of those who have left. There are no statistics for how many have fled from the Three Mile Island area, but it is clear that many are taking at least a long weekend. At the North York evacuation center, set up in the gym of Central High School, Greg Werner said, "Bringing kids into the center was scary, but we don't want anything to happen to our kids in later years." Werner, a 24-year-old warehouseman, brought his wife and two pre-school children to the center from their home in Manchester.

In Harrisburg. a pediatrician said he and his associates have experienced a "significant increase" in the nuifjwr of go into this Tth a fine-tooth comb..