Our prime concern has been and remains the safety of the residents of the area and of those workers who must carry out the responsibility of decontamination of the unit 2 facility. The most pressing question is which of the alternatives is the safest, and if im satisfied if there is an alternative that meets that description then i certainly will support it because i am concerned about the safety of this area. Were at the university of pittsburgh Hillman Library and were in the thornburgh room and were going to be looking at some of the thornburgh collection and Dick Thornburg is a pittsburgher from the start and attended law school here and hes gone on to be governor of pennsylvania, u. S. Attorney general and his collection is here now at the university of pittsburgh and thornburgs collection is large, which is an understatement considering its 1,052 cartness on of documents. He was elected governor in 1979 and was sworn in on january 16, 1979. Hes there being sworn in literally. 72 days after his inauguration he was busy with matters pertaining to the forthcoming budget and meeting with people in the governors home when a phone call came at 7 50 a. M. On wednesday, march 28th. It was announced that he was the new governor that there was an accident at the nearby Nuclear Plant on the 3 mile island. He realized Nuclear Accident had amazing repercussions, and uncertainties and difficulties ahead, and them the next morning, early in the day, his notes referred to having heard mention of a fuel core damage and consulting through the whole day that did not change, but what to do was an enigma. Thornburgh was well enough red and knew from the very start an accident at a Nuclear Plant was something truly serious, and immediately he had to pull together a very small group of people that he could trust to pursue the needs about emergency plans in pennsylvania and he himself had to be sure that the public, once they knew about this accident was consistently and calmly informed. As time went on, trying to understand really what happened, the reports were conflicting. Every day, practically every hour there was a change and this one, for example, says theres absolutely no danger of a meltdown as he underlines the con tliking reports. Someone said there was no active material release and there was ask that became known later one day and ongoing and there was a leak and radiation had been released. It was a matter of how much and what to do about it. The company itself reversed its opinions and its statements almost hourly. So they were useful and his own personnel at that point and nuclear experts, and he was at sea until he could find someone, somehow to get the facts and the real facts and the news that something had happened in the Nuclear Plant got around the country quickly and reporters came from far and wide and by the end of the week there were hundreds in the state capital wanting to know what had happened and of course, the governor himself didnt know at that time. Newspaper headlines were just blasting out. The u. S. Sees a meltdown at radioactive plant. Gasses released and congress is briefed so the nation is getting full information about what happened, but doesnt why and what could be done about it. Early on, the governor really did not know the ramifications of some of these releases of radiation. He did advise people in the immediate area to stay inside and that was the recommendation. Also on friday which was two days later, he asked and advised mothers with Young Children go off out of the area and the pennsylvania government provided locations for them to stay and they did for some three or four days thereafter. He did consider ordering an evacuation, but he was very cognizant, too, that there was hazard, great hazard in doing that without suitable planning or under any circumstance e so he was loathed to do that unless he became specifically, unavoidably necessary. Thornburg was able to get Telephone Communications with the president on friday and when the president asked what can i do for you . He said i need scientists and folks from the Nuclear Regulatory agency to tell me what really is going on. The president said its essentially done and he sent a military helicopter out with people from the Nuclear Regulatory agency to figure it out and let everyone know. Harold denton was an engineer with the Nuclear Regulatory commission, a very smart man, hed only been employed for six months and he was assigned to go up there it see what was happening. There are gallons in the primary system thats being circulated around the cooler and all of the water spilled inside the containment is still inside the containment. Thats roughly 600,000 of highly contaminated water. I see no imminent chance for any of that water being released and that water has to be cleaned up and both the water thats in the containment and the walls of the containment has to be washed down and that has to be collected and that decontamination must go on. I think the agency in washington didnt really understand themselves how serious it was until harold, in fact, and the team got there, could take a look and determine that it was pretty serious, but ultimately they were able to ascertain that the socalled bubble was not going to burst and there was not going to be a meltdown which is what the language was for peoples fears. As a result from that, assurance from Harold Denton and the president flew up to harrisburg the next day with mrs. Carter and met with harold, the governor, and Lieutenant Governor, and they actually had a tour of the control room and this is all because they had assurance it was not going to blow up, of course, and they could go and talk to the engineers there. After the tour of the control room, the president had a held a press conference including Harold Denton and Lieutenant Governor stanton and its on his part commending the population in the area for their careful thinking and caution in the case of the accident and praising Dick Thornburg, the governor. After the president left and the population or the populous knew there was not going to be an explosion, people who did leave returned to their homes, but mothers and children that had been away from their homes for a little while returned and things began to really be calm and the news reports were no longer accident meltdown, but thornburg did a great job. He was in crisis, a builder of confidence where his capacity for handling this really serious event had been so successful and approach combratd. Once it was determined that wasnt a leak, that does did not solve the problem and it took years for engineers to determine how to fix it, but fixing and going on did take ten years and cost a billion dollars. After things calmed in harrisburg, it then behooved washington to find out what was going to go on or had gone on. The United States senate, for example, just in april 19th wrote to governor thornburg and said we are pleased to invite you to be our leadoff witness in our committee and would like your presence and any principal state officials you wish. One of the pages i pulled out here i think was particularly telling. His quote from his speech was the toughest decision of all, however, is the one i had to make 24 hours a day throughout the crisis, and that was of course, the decision not to order an evacuation. That would have been unprecedented in its nature as well as its potential for harm. Despite having started off his career as a twoterm governor with a massive emergency, his team, his policies and balanced budgets were favorably received by the state of pennsylvania and he, in his concluding time, was very broadly, affectionately regarded, justly, i think. All week, were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of whats available on cspan three. Lectures in history. American artifact, reel america, civil war, oral history, the presidency and special event coverage about our nations history. Enjoy American History tv now and every weekend on cspan3. American history tv products are now available at the new cspan online store. Go to cspan store. Org to see whats new from American History tv and check out all of the cspan products. 30 years ago on march 24th 1989 the Exxon Valdez Oil tanker struck a tanker and spilled close to 11 million gallons of crude oil. Two weeks later the Senate CommerceCommittee Heard from exxons chairman as well as the coast guard and hell also see Committee Members ted stephens of alaska and john kerry. This portion of the hearing is a little over two hours. Are you ready for me, mr. Chairman . Yes, mr. Roll, we have you on speaker, and it will be included in the