Three Mile Island

American  

noun

1. an island in the Susquehanna River, near Middletown, Pennsylvania, SE of Harrisburg: scene of a near-disastrous accident at a nuclear plant in 1979 that raised the issue of nuclear-energy safety.

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Three Mile Island ¹ Cultural  

1. The location of an accident in 1979 in a nuclear power plant — an electrical generator powered by a nuclear reactor — in Pennsylvania. The plant underwent a partial meltdown that resulted in very little leakage of radiation into the atmosphere, panic among nearby residents, losses of billions of dollars, and intense criticism of nuclear power programs in general. (Compare Chernobyl.)

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Three Mile Island ² Cultural  

1. The location of an accident in 1979 in a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The plant underwent a partial meltdown that resulted in some radiation leakage into the atmosphere, panic among nearby residents, losses of billions of dollars, and intense criticism of nuclear power programs in general.

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Compare meaning

How does three-mile-island compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• Chernobyl vs. Three Mile Island

Example Sentences

This movie, about a fictional nuclear meltdown, along with the Three Mile Island accident, a real-world incident which occurred in the same year, turned nuclear energy from something favored into something that was frightening and dangerous which should be shunned.

From The Wall Street Journal

Microsoft wants to reopen Pennsylvania’s retired Three Mile Island nuclear plant.

From The Wall Street Journal

Many nuclear-power plants have fewer reactors than initially planned because of spiraling costs and waning enthusiasm for the technology after the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in the late 1970s.

From The Wall Street Journal

Written just a few days after the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, the worst such accident in U.S. history to date.

From Salon

Three Mile Island was located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, just a few hours’ drive from Asbury Park, making it also just a few hours’ drive from multiple major population centers.

From Salon