On March 28 , 1979 , equipment failures and operator error contributed to loss of coolant and a partial core meltdown at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania . The World Nuclear Association has stated that cleanup of the damaged nuclear reactor system at TMI-2 took nearly 12 years and cost approximately US $ 973 million . Benjamin K. Sovacool , in his 2007 preliminary assessment of major energy accidents , estimated that the TMI accident caused a total of $ 2.4 billion in property damages . The health effects of the Three Mile Island accident are widely , but not universally , agreed to be very low level . The accident triggered protests around the world
Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant
Three Mile Island accident
Anti-nuclear movement in the United States