news covered it. >> at this time, there is no

evacuation. time, there is no evacuation. please stay indoors with your windows closed. this is not a community that scares easily. major floods of hurricane agnes came here and the town survived. but the other breath.

these precautionary instructions would have little to no impact on mitigating the effects of the exposure to radiation. wasgot to remember, friday an unreasonably warm day. people were outside. school was in session. people coming to school to picks

released a couple weeks before

the accident. here's a trailer from the 1979 movie. > [video clip] syndrome.""the china peopleout people people who live. and people faced with the admits only truth. like kimberly, a television reporter they to smile, not to think. >> a veterinarian who makes house calls on sick fish. richard, the cameramen who never learned to play the rules. jack, an engineer who knows too much to tell the truth. have defense. we announcer: and carers too much to live. cares too much to lie. announcer: it begins with a tremor in a nuclear power plant.

ends lies with three people. jane fonda. jack

compounded the fear and anxiety. and as we listen to barbara joining us from new jersey -- good morning. caller: -- barbara, are you with us? we will try more time for barbara in new jersey. we lost a that call. so, did 1979.

>> it was the first step in a nuclear nightmare as far as we know at this hour no worse than that. but a government official said that a breakdown in a power

plant in pennsylvania today is probably the worst nuclear reactor accident to date. there was no apparent serious contamination of workers but a nuclear safety group said that radiation inside the plant is at eight times the deadly level, so strong that after passing through a three-foot thick concrete wall it can be measured a mile away. >> the accident occurred here at the three mile island nuclear power plant a dozen miles south of harrisburg. at about 4:00 this morning two water pumps that helped cool reactor number two shut down. officials say some 50 to 60,000 gallons of radioactive water escaped into the reactor building and that the radioactivity penetrated the plant's wall. steam escaped into the atmosphere and radiation was detected as far as a mile away. at least 50 workers and perhaps twice that number were at the plant when the accident occurred. a spokesman admitted that some were exposed to radioactivity

and may have been contaminated but he claimed no one was injured. all workers were given extensive checks with giger counters as they left the plant. reporters were not permitted inside the facility today but this is what reactor number two's control room looked like last september when it was still underg is what president

carter said just a few days after the accident occurred. >> the president came to the plant for one very simple reason. to assure the people that if the president of the united states and the governor of pennsylvania were standing there together, right at the plant site, that obviously there was no reason to believe that the whole thing was going to blow up at any minute. obviously, that would reassure the population that we're going to have plenty of advanced warning if we have to get out of here. >> back to middletown, the president praised local officials and then without actually using the word referred to what everyone here has been thinking about for days. evac was -- evacuation.

>> i would like to say to people who live around the plant that if it does become necessary your governor will ask you and others in this area to take appropriate action to ensure your safety. f he does, i want to urge that these instructions be carried out calmly and exactly as they have been