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

In subsequent decades, Erikson would examine, among others: those living in the invisible shadow of the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster; the Grassy Narrows First Nation in northern Ontario whose waterways had been contaminated with mercury for many years by a paper mill; suburban Coloradans threatened by an underground gas leak; Marshall Islanders exposed to fallout from nuclear testing; Alaska Natives in the vicinity of the Exxon Valdez spill; and New Yorkers after 9/11.

From The Wall Street Journal

It was then that Middletown burst onto television screens worldwide and became synonymous with “Three Mile Island.”

From The Wall Street Journal

In central Pennsylvania, an “intergenerational schism” shadows the restart, said Eric Epstein, 66, of Harrisburg, who joined “Three Mile Island Alert,” a watchdog group, in 1984.

From The Wall Street Journal

MIDDLETOWN, Pa.—Forty-six years have passed since America’s worst nuclear accident, at Three Mile Island, jolted the country and created skepticism of nuclear energy.

From The Wall Street Journal

Constellation said the undamaged reactor at Three Mile Island went on to become one of the world’s safest and best-run nuclear plants.

From The Wall Street Journal