Three Mile Island

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.

Three Mile Island

¹

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.)

Three Mile Island

²

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.

Example Sentences

The poster child for that strategy is Three Mile Island, the nuclear plant that was the site of a notorious 1979 meltdown.

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Dominguez’s office is sparsely decorated, but one of the few pictures on the wall is of Three Mile Island.

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“Three Mile Island, although a horrible event, was the foundation for everything that’s good that has come subsequently,” he says.

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The movie’s theatrical release occurred less than two weeks before the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.

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Microsoft is investing billions of dollars in energy projects, including a deal with Constellation Energy that will see nuclear power produced again on Three Mile Island.

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