My alarm went off that Wednesday at 06:30 as it had for over ten years.  I listened to WSBA as I got ready for work at Caterpillar.  They reported a controlled shutdown of the Unit 2 nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island.  I remember thinking, “How long will it take to work the bugs out of that thing.”

TMI Unit 2 went on line on December 31, rushed into service to meet a year end deadline for rate inclusion.  Money talks!  I am not aware of any claims that this rush contributed to the accident but in a rush people to cut corners. By mid-March Unit 2 had taken several controlled shutdowns, enough that WSBA’s Ed Wickehiser passed off this one with little attention.  My reaction to his newscast was about the same. But on March 28, 1979 it was far from nothing.

In the next one hundred hours the lives of the people who live in the long shadow of TMI changed.  TMI became internationally known.  I moved to Illinois five years later.  When people learned I lived just outside the ten mile circle I was asked if I was radioactive.  I laughed and then realized the person was genuinely concerned that I might be a hazard. 

As I sat in the Warrington Township EOC during the 2009 TMI drill I remembered that morning and how things went from bad to worse in those hours and wondered.  “What if WSBA reported an incident with a release on February 22, 2009, two months before this drill?”  What would I have done?  Real disasters aren’t scheduled months in advance.  There isn’t time to brush up on training, pack go kits, check out rigs and antennas, and charge batteries.  When they happen you “Come as you are.” 

I’ll give you my status for a February 22, 2009 event.

At that time I had held a General Class License for ninety days.  I was a YARS member and was working toward getting my act together with training, IC 100 and 700 were complete along with the Kentucky training.  On paper it looked good but I really wasn’t ready for anything.  I hadn’t given any significant thought to how I would provide emergency communications.  And when it comes down to it, each one of us does it, not YARS, KVHF, SMRA, or REACT.  They are the glue that holds us together and makes the whole unit stronger.