ABSTRACT
The executive order that created the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island defined the situation as an accident. The planning being done by officials for the Three Mile Island area in many ways typified the ambiguities, contradictions, and complexities of emergency planning in the United States, Systematic emergency planning has a relatively short history in the United States. Planning for the off-site consequences of radiological emergencies at nuclear-power plants lacked a sense of urgency and, often, coordination. County planning had been prompted by the location of the plant, even though that plan depended on inadequately prepared local communities. Some of the commission's many recommendations are related to emergency planning and response. A major thrust of the commission's report was to place the responsibility for the supervision of emergency planning for off-site consequences of nuclear plants with Federal Emergency Management Agency, instead of depending on initiatives from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
