Engineering is an art form that makes use of scientific principle, and this marriage confuses a lot of people. We tend to think of engineering itself as a science, but it is nothing more than advanced carpentry. The practitioners learn by doing, and the craft is constantly in a state of evolution. When the Three Little Pigs built their houses, they all had acceptable designs – acceptable to them – but two of the piggies underestimated the wind loads. (1)
The Three Mile Island accident was not supposed to happen. Because of the impact that they have on all life within thousands of square miles, nuclear power plants have multiple safety systems, tested designs, knowledgeable operators, and strong oversight. But what happened in the early morning of Wednesday, March 28, 1979 was not a single failure that can be designed around. Instead, multiple failures coincided to help cause the worst nuclear disaster in the history of the United States. Even 32 years removed, its sensationalized accounts have entered our national consciousness as part of the cost of being a nuclear nation. From the devastation tsunamis wrecked in Japan this past March, we can reflect on both the perils of nuclear energy and the lessons we have learned.
(1) Mike Gray and Ira Rosen, The Warning: Accident at Three Mile Island (New York: W. W. Norton, 1982), 15.
