ABSTRACT
The ability to manipulate scientific knowledge and to muster evidence to support particular arguments has been a source of considerable power. Experts were far more than sources of information about the causes and dimensions of the accident: They were image makers, a source of credibility, and persons to talk to the persistent and ever-present press. In the climate of crisis at Three Mile Island, the problems of technical uncertainty and conflicting data that confront experts in controversial areas of science and technology were profound. Nuclear experts from the State Department of Environmental Resources warned that traces of radioactive isotope iodine-131 may be present in milk as radiation dispersed and settled on the grass consumed by local dairy cattle, Nuclear Regulatory Commission investigators monitored this level in milk, but dismissed the quantity as trivial. Experts will probably exert only minimal influence on how people feel about nuclear power.
