NH #614: TMI Anniversary – Film – RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island – Director Heidi Hutner

RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island – Interview w/Director Heidi Hutner

This Week’s Feature Interview:

Director Heidi Hutner with the poster of her film.

Today is the 44th anniversary of the start of the nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I was there, one mile away when it happened, and the experience completely changed the trajectory of my life. For one thing, I would not be producing this program if I hadn’t been there. But while I’ve done my research, read books, viewed films and TV programs, interviewed genuine experts, no one had addressed the human, emotional, personal toll that the accident and its aftermath extracted from the population.

That is, until now. RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island rolls out the story of the 1979 accident and how it affected four mothers from the community. It includes scientific information, of course, but the emphasis is on the human side of the story – the part that the nuclear industry leaves out as it cites statistics and spews false assurances of safety. It’s a calm, understated, and ultimately devastating film that is already having an impact on those who have seen it, and these are as yet early days. So it was with special interest that I set up an interview with the woman behind the film.

  • Heidi Hutner is a professor of Literature, Sustainability, Women’s and Gender Studies at Stony Brook University, and a scholar of nuclear and environmental history, literature, film, and ecofeminism. Hutner chaired the Sustainability Studies Program for six years and was Associate Dean in the School of Marine, Atmospheric Science, and Sustainability. She is the winner of Sierra Club Long Island’s 2015 Environmentalist of the Year Award and much more.

    We spoke on Saturday, March 18, 2023.
  • Scheduled screenings for RADIOACTIVE: The Women of Three Mile Island are listed at: RadioactivetheFilm.com.

Three Mile Island Anniversary Show, 2021

For those who want a more narrative presentation of what happened at Three Mile Island, here’s a link to Nuclear Hotseat’s anniversary program from 2021:

NH #509: Three Mile Island Nuclear Meltdown at 42: Never Forget!

Libbe HaLevy’s nuclear memoir, YES, I GLOW IN THE DARK!

Nuclear Hotseat producer and host Libbe HaLevy’s nuclear memoir is YES, I GLOW IN THE DARK!  One Mile from Three Mile Island to Fukushima and Nuclear Hotseat. It contains full information on her experience having been one mile from the nuclear accident at TMI when it happened, as well as actions any one of us can take to work against nuclear power and nuclear weapons.  You can purchase your copy of the book HERE. 

CLICK to purchase from Amazon.

Nuclear Hotseat Hot Story with Linda Pentz Gunter

While calling it their “final warning”, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, scientists said in their latest report that there is still time for effective options but nuclear power isn’t one of them.

Numnutz of the Week (for Outstanding Nuclear Boneheadedness):

If you’re planning to build new nukes in your country, shouldn’t you rely on suppliers who actually know what they’re doing instead of industry numnutzes?

Links: