Everyone is always referring to Three Mile Island as the worst nuclear catastrophe in the United States, but this is isn't accurate.

Most people have not heard of the Rocketdyne meltdown, nor of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. During the late 50's and early 60's, four of the ten reactors located there experienced accidents, including a partial meltdown and multiple contaminated fires. Being experimental reactors, none of them had any containment structures, meaning the radiation was able to freely escape. Aside from meltdown and radioactive fires, there was also an open air sodium burn pit (used to clean sodium off of equipment) which was used improperly (and illegally) to burn radioactive waste and industrial chemicals as well, releasing a huge amount of radiation and poisonous contaminants into the air.

These incidents as well as contamination from the thousands of rocket engine tests they performed at the laboratory have lead to things like a slightly increased rate of certain cancers (particularly thyroid) within nearby communities.

All of this occurred overlooking the city of Simi Valley, right over the hill from Los Angeles. Although there was a huge coverup involved, there is a large amount of information available on these incidents online. Around here these incidents are fairly well known, but any time I see a discussion online about nuclear energy I see Three Mile Island thrown around as the worst nuclear disaster we've suffered, even though almost no radiation was released there compared to Rocketdyne.

I am not against nuclear power, I actually think it is probably the safest form of energy we are developing. I just get frustrated when I see Three Mile Island talked about as a huge disaster, where no one died or was injured or irradiated, compared to Rocketdyne, where several people have died due to the negligence experienced there, as well as the many more who have been exposed to radiation both in the facilities there and the nearby communities.