This Day in History: 1979-03-28

takes place this day in 1979 when a partial meltdown occurs in one of the reactors in the nuclear utility complex. Operators narrowly avoid a much worse accident by correctly guessing that they need to vent explosive hydrogen gasses building up in the core. The accident is one of three major events that have halted world nuclear reactor construction, the other two being the Chernobyl disaster of April 26, 1986 and the Fukushima disaster of March 11, 2011.