Rick Parks was the chief engineer at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant where he witnessed negligence surrounding safety risks posed by the plant clean-up operation of the 1979 partial meltdown and nuclear accident. Parks turned to Government Accountability Project attorneys to speak out when the cleanup was scheduled to use a polar crane whose brakes and electrical system had been totaled in the accident to remove the core of radioactive rubble that remained. If the crane failed at various spots during the removal process, it would cause a complete meltdown. Mr. Parks brought the quality control problems to the attention of his superiors but instead was stripped of his duties after protesting all the violations. Luckily, Mr. Parks’ bravery paid off when Nuclear Regulation Commission investigators found the cleanup systematically illegal and ordered it to be done again after extensive further repairs on the polar crane. Mr. Parks’ disclosure and bravery prevented a major nuclear disaster from destroying the east coast.
Rick Parks’ story was expertly told by the Emmy Nominated Netflix documentary, Meltdown: Three Mile Island. The program shows dramatic reenactments, archival footage, novel home video, and in-depth interviews highlighting the power of whistleblowers in exposing corruption and protecting the public, and features interviews with Mr. Parks as well as Government Accountability Project Legal Director, Tom Devine, describing the expert work to put a halt to...
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