Lab ARAC team monitored environment at Three Mile Island

Editor's note: This feature is brought to you by the Laboratory's Archives and Research Center.

The lead story in the Lab’s Newsline Weekly Bulletin on April 4, 1979, described how LLNL’s Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC), now the National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center (NARAC), provided hourly estimates on the movement of radioactive materials released into the atmosphere by the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.

On March 28, 1979 a telephone call from the Department of Energy Headquarters told of a nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. The actions initiated at LLNL that morning led to a 14-day response by the ARAC project members.