Bridging the Information Gap at Three Mile Island: Radiation Monitoring by Citizens

This paper describes a unique effort to provide citizens with information about radiation exposure and to rebuild public confidence in information supplied by government agencies. The Citizen Radiation Monitoring Program (CRMP) trained lay citizens to monitor, interpret, and publicize radiation levels in 12 communities surrounding Three Mile Island (TMI) during the purge of radioactive Krypton from the reactor a year after the accident. One outgrowth of the accident was an erosion in the community's confidence in information about risks associated with the clean-up. Traditional mechanisms for information exchange between government officials and the public had a deviation-amplifying effect on this information gap. The CRMP sought to reverse this effect by (1) involving the communities in the program's design and operation, (2) trusting local citizens to measure and publicize radiation levels, and (3) addressing emotional as well as technical issues associated with the purge. Several implications for disseminating public information are offered.