Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island

Fascinating documentary on the women--local mothers, a waitress, a young lawyer--who fought efforts to downplay the accident by the nuclear industry and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Their efforts led to hearings that cast doubt on officials' statements--for example, it turns out no one knows how much radiation was released because the sensors atop the towers were pushed past their maximum limits--and led to the federal prosecution and conviction of the utility company for falsifying records.

The film notes that more such doubt is cast by recent peer-reviewed, journal-published research. One paper shows that cancer rates are higher where the radioactive plume fell. Another paper explains the disparity between official expectations of illness and the observed higher rate--in part because the expectations accounted for short-lasting gamma radiation and not fat-soluble beta radiation.

The film notes that the efforts of these women did not stop the reopening of TMI after six years--but did help scuttle more than 100 planned nuclear plants.

Well worth seeing.