ABSTRACT
A prescient article in 1976 by ecologist Garrett Hardin identified "the people problem" as the pivotal issue in nuclear safety. Public participation is an important part of the regulatory process itself. It is a primary area of attention in any effort to decentralize the regulatory process. The Three Mile island (TMI) accident implications are widespread and significant for social, economic, and political systems. The analysis of "safety-control" as an institutionally organized human activity reveals problems that may not be able to be effectively solved within the existing set of technical, social, and moral constraints. The accident was a "normal" one, with familiar characteristics-unheeded warnings, multiple equipment failures, operator judgment errors, and systemic effects which made the event incomprehensible and almost unmanageable. The boundaries of affected site areas were shown to be considerably broader at TMI than is common analytical practice in environmental impact statements.
