Incident at Browns Ferry

Nuclear Power: how "safe" is safe?
Written, directed and produced by Robert Richter

If you saw this investigative, duPont Columbia Broadcast Journalism Award-winning documentary (TV journalism's Pulitzer Prize), you would not have been surprised by Three Mile Island or Chernobyl.

The "incident" at Browns Ferry started with a candle flame used to check for nuclear leaks, causing an accidental fire that went out of control. The fire led to a near meltdown in what was then the largest nuclear power plant in the US. After the fire in this huge technically sophisticated operation, air leaks were checked with a chicken feather!

The nuclear power industry tried to stop the original telecast of this report when it was nationally shown in the PBS Nova series.

As the U.S. licenses new nuclear plants for the first time in 30 years, the questions that are at the core of Incident at Browns Ferry remain: How safe is nuclear power? How safe is safe?

In May 2007 the Browns Ferry plant reopened after 22 years of being shut down. A week later it shut again.

57 minutes

Study Areas: Environmental studies, nuclear power, energy, safety, statistical analysis.

To top of page

Documentaries On:

Incident at Browns Ferry

If you saw this investigative, duPont Columbia Broadcast Journalism Award-winning documentary (TV journalism's Pulitzer Prize), you would not have been surprised by Three Mile Island or Chernobyl.

As the U.S. licenses new nuclear plants for the first time in 30 years, the questions that are at the core of Incident at Browns Ferry remain: How safe is nuclear power? How safe is safe?