The Three Mile Island meltdown was profiled on PBS's "The American
Expirence". I was surprised to hear how poor the communications were, even
by 1979 standards. A quote from the shows website says:


"The designers of the plant down in Lynchburg could not get through under
any circumstances. And they had to relay all the information through a
regional NRC office in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania to the Unit One, which
is north of the accident, and then a runner would run over to Unit Two and
read the gauge and run back and report this so the people down here are
getting fourth hand information which is largely incorrect. And certainly
incomplete, and they're passing back advice which doesn't make it all the
way."

"Finally Wednesday evening, an urgent message from Babcock & Wilcox got
through to the control room -- get water moving through the core. "

"As soon as the operators restarted the pumps, temperature and pressure in
the reactor dropped and stabilized. Sixteen hours after it had begun, it
appeared the accident was over."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/three/f...anscript1.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/three/filmmore/index.html

No shortwave radio, no mention of walkie talkies. It doesn't seem they
solicited help from local hams.

Frank Dresser