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This Happened

This Happened - March 28: Three Mile Island Meltdown

On this day in 1979, a nuclear reactor at the Three Mile Island power plant in Pennsylvania experienced a partial meltdown due to a combination of equipment malfunctions, operator errors, and design flaws. As a result, radioactive gas was released into the environment, and the plant had to be shut down permanently.


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What was the reaction to the Three Mile Island accident?

The Three Mile Island accident was a significant event in the history of nuclear power, and it led to increased public concern about the safety of nuclear energy. Many people in the surrounding area were evacuated, and there were protests and public debates about nuclear power in the months and years that followed.

What were the consequences of Three Mile Island on the nuclear industry?

The Three Mile Island accident led to increased scrutiny of nuclear power plants and stricter regulations on safety procedures. Many people became more skeptical of the nuclear industry, and it became more difficult to build new nuclear power plants in the United States.

Has anything like the Three Mile Island accident happened since then?

There have been other nuclear accidents around the world, including the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in 2011. However, the Three Mile Island accident remains one of the most significant nuclear accidents in history, both in terms of its impact on public opinion and its long-term consequences for the nuclear industry.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

Bucha To Bakhmut, Mariupol To Maryinka: Our Brutal Introduction To Ukraine's 'Hero Cities'

The world has come to know Ukraine’s geography through decisive battles and unspeakable war crimes in places like Mariupol, Bucha and now Bakhmut. We zoom in on what these places mean for the war, in both strategic and symbolic terms.

Bucha To Bakhmut, Mariupol To Maryinka: Our Brutal Introduction To Ukraine's 'Hero Cities'

Ukrainian soldiers preparing a tank for combat on the Bakhmut front.

Before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Bakhmut, an eastern city of just over 70,000, was known across the region for its sparkling wine and salt mines – and around the world, it was barely known at all.

Through cruel coincidences of fate and geography, the names of places like Bakhmut have become iconic as they appear in newspaper headlines, day after day.

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Now, Bakhmut joins the annals of history alongside places like Iwo Jima, Gallipoli or Falluja that appeared on the map in pitched battles. Or like Aleppo — introduced to many around the world as the site of atrocities during the Syrian Civil War, though known to both history and food buffs for its UNESCO-recognized ancient souk and thousands of years of multicultural culinary wonders.

Over the past 15 months, the world has come to know Ukrainian geography, often in the most tragic circumstances. Just a few weeks after Russia's full-scale invasion in Feb. 2022, the Ukrainian government recognized 14 cities, including Kherson, Mariupol, Bucha and Irpin, as “Hero Cities” – a distinction dating back to World War II, when the Soviet Union recognized cities like Kyiv and Stalingrad (present-day Volgograd) for their residents’ bravery and determination in the face of the Nazi invasion.

After more than a year of full-scale war and as Ukraine's long-awaited counterattack nears, we look at some of the places that have become the site of crucial battles in the ongoing conflict, forever seared into posterity:

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