the construction. But as time past and politics changed. The views towards nuclear power in the mid 1980s changed on Long Island. Shoreham power plant, which help to lower taxes and employed many local people. Now LILCO was getting negative press every other day. It was not what was going on at Shoreham but rather the rest of the world. In 1979, Three Mile Island reactor in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania lost coolant in one of its two reactors and a partial meltdown occurred on March 28, 1979. Large amounts of radioactive noble gases were released to the containment atmosphere and environment. The resulting contamination led to a very expensive ten-year clean up plan. The first re-entry of the building took place in July of 1980. More than 40,000 curies of radioactive gases are vented from the reactor building in preparation for cleanup crews.(Washington Post) That did not compare to the tragic accident at the Soviets Chernobyl power plant in 1986. "The accident which immediately killed three hundred and twenty one persons, caused about 130,000 cases of irradiation and led to the displacement of hundred of individuals" (Paddock). The Chelyabinsk-40 reactor was located near the Ural Mountains in the city of Kyshtym, Russia. A tank holding radioactive gases exploded, contaminating land thousands of miles around the plant. Until 1988, Russia officials dared not to admit that this event even took place. Many things are still unknown about this disaster. What we do know, however, is that the region around the reactor is sealed, and more than 30 towns in the area around it have disappeared from the Soviet map (Paddock 74). The post Chernobyl brain syndrome arose because of the high amounts of radiation. In the city of Gomel, Belarus, near the Chernobyl power plant, a survey revealed that out of fifteen hundreds of children, only twenty-four were in good health (Paddock). The Belarus children keep eating the...
