Kyle Greer’s Reviews > Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disasters > Status Update

Finished TMI, finally. Three Mile Island can really be thought of as a communications failure first and a PORV failure second. The lack of accurate information flow between even the PA governor and the NRC is shocking. It's not a surprise that the public was panicked.

President Carter's visit to Harrisburg is it's own long story, but it effectively marked the end of any anticipated danger in Middlestown.

The miscommunication and lack of clarity provided to the government and public around TMI was a nightmare

Took a few days to get through Kyshtym. This was due mostly to the abundance of locations to keep track of. Plokhy will sometimes switch between the old nomenclature used for locations, and the modern, which can be confusing as well. This was an event I had a passing familiarity with prior to reading, however I was not aware of the extent of the damages to the Ural area or surrounding villagers.

Interesting read about the Castle Bravo incident. I had heard the story of lucky dragon no.5 before, but never the rest of the story. To hear how poorly the US military treated the Marshall island natives before, during, and after the incident was upsetting.