Prayers mark 32 years since Three Mile Island
Anti-nuclear demonstrators Mary Stamos, left, Joyce Corradi, center and Paula Kinary, right, hold a candlelight vigil on the 32nd anniversary of the 1979 meltdown of the Three Mile Island Unit 2 nuclear reactor outside the plants main gate at 3:53 AM Monday March 28, 2011 in Middletown, Pa. (AP Photo/Bradley C Bower)
The Three Mile Island nuclear power generating station, shown here Monday, March 28, 2011 in Middletown, Pa., continues to generate electric power with the Unit 1 reactor. TMI was the scene of the 1979 meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor, the worst nuclear power plant disaster in the United states. (AP Photo/Bradley C Bower)
MIDDLETOWN, Pennsylvania >> The 32nd anniversary of the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island is being marked at the plant with prayers for Japan.
WGAL-TV reports about 30 people gathered early Monday outside the nuclear plant near Harrisburg for a vigil to remember the worst commercial nuclear power plant accident in U.S. history.
An equipment failure and operator errors led to partial core meltdown at the plant’s Unit 2 reactor around 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979.
Those gathered outside the plant offered their prayers for tsunami-devastated Japan, especially people forced from their homes by the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex.
Three Mile Island spokesman Ralph DeSantis says the Unit 2 disaster has taught plant operators many valuable lessons.
