The China Syndrome (1979)

Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is a reporter for KXLA.  She primarily does the feel-good stories, not hard journalism.  With camera man Richard (Michael Douglas) and sound engineer Hector (Daniel Valdez), Kimberly arrives at the Ventana nuclear plant to do a puff piece about energy.  Bill Gibson (James Hampton) offers a brief presentation about how a nuclear powerplant generates electricity and then shows them around the non-restricted areas of the power station.  The tour ends in a viewing gallery where they can see the control room.  Then there is an incident.  Though told not to film, Richard surreptitiously recorded the events.  Kimberly wants to show the film immediately upon returning to the TV station.  Having no sound and no expertise to determine if this was a mundane or serious incident, the management declines.  Meanwhile, Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon) knows there is something serious wrong.  Though they handled the incident effectively, there was a tremor that concerned him.  As he investigates, he discovers that some of the construction reports that were submitted are duplicates.  Further, he finds a radioactive puddle near the turbine.  Though he reports this, everyone above him wants to restart the station.  His efforts to expose the problem through contacts with Kimberly and Richard are thwarted by hired goons.

This movie, released in March 1979, coincided with the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and crippled nuclear power in the US since.  Though described by the nuclear industry as fiction and character assassination, there had been problems prior to Three Mile Island.  The Brown's Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama had a fire in 1975 that was much more dangerous than Three Mile Island.  That there were issues with nuclear energy is entirely true, but the portrayal of the executives was cartoonish in their villainy.  Despite the incident and being shown that construction guidelines were not followed, the executives choose to silence those trying to prevent a meltdown.

Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011 have further added to concerns about nuclear power.  However, in the history of US nuclear power, there have been 7 deaths (3 in Idaho in 1961 and 4 in Virginia in 1986).  By contrast, 5,788 coal miners have died in accidents since 1961.  Then there are other energy sources to consider.  In June 1984, a Union Oil refinery explosion in Illinois killed 19.  In May 1988, a Shell Oil refinery explosion killed 7.  In June 1999, a pipeline explosion in Washington killed 3.  In March 2005, the Texas City Refinery explosion killed 15.  In 2010, an explosion at a Connecticut plant killed 5.  In April 2013, a gas well blowout in Texas killed 2.  To be fair, one should also compare how much of our energy is provided by these sources and determine how many deaths per megawatt, but that would take more time than I want to commit.  The point is that all sources of energy have dangers, but we are cavalier in our attitude toward deaths from coal and oil production.

In any case, the movie is entertaining and certainly worth watching.