As usual with Netflix, sensationalism wins over facts. Why? Because otherwise this relatively boring story about the nuclear accident that never was wouldn't be able to be used to justify a 4 hour series.
As a lifelong resident of PA, everyone knows about TMI, and not to discount the experiences of those who lived nearby, it WAS scary. Lake Barrett is actually the most reputable out of all of the interviewees who primarily consisted of two housewives who took up the anti-nuclear cause, a woman who was a child at the time, and a man who's reputation is highly suspect and this is even according to his own son who went on social media to dispel the story he told.
Rick Parks was NOT on-site at the time of the incident and only showed up years later. The first two episodes focus on the immediate incident and the response. The media played on people's fears back then just as they do now. No surprise. There was a lack of clear communication between MetEd, the NRC and the PA government. There was NEVER any deaths attributable to the small amount of radiation released. The dead fish were more likely caused by a temperature difference in circulated wate, which was pumped directly from the Susquehanna River the plant was located on. The type of burns shown on the "bike riding victim" were not the type you'd observe with radiation.
The last two episodes focus on Rick Parks and his fight to keep them from using a polar crane located within the reactor building to remove the fuel. The debate was never about the actual safety of the crane, it was about the procedures used. His affidavit even confirms this. The super-criticality theory he concocts has no basis in reality as the reactor had been shut down and cooled for YEARS before the cleanup began. Post-accident reports even confirm there was no possible way for the core to go critical in the state it was in after the shutdown. Where he really goes off the rails is when he insists they tried sabotaging him by planting pot in his toolbox.
One of their so-called experts is a well-known leader of anti-nuclear groups, Eric Epstein. That name alone should cause alarm among anyone actually looking for even an even-sided debate about nuclear.
The series also fails to address the fact that no incidents have taken place since, or any of the safety changes that were implemented industry-wide due to it.
What the director wanted was to make a series about an "American Chernobyl." In terms of nuclear accidents, this may have been the worst in U. S. history but that's simply due to the fact that not many have taken place, and most of the ones that did occur were during the Manhattan Project, during nuclear infancy.
It's well-shot, emotional, but leaves out a LOT of factual information and clearly serves as more of an anti-nuclear piece of propaganda than anything.
