THE 32ND ANNIVERSARY of the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania is being marked at the plant with prayers for Japan.

WGAL-TV reports about 30 people gathered early Monday outside the nuclear plant near Harrisburg for a vigil to remember the worst commercial nuclear power plant accident in US history.

An equipment failure and operator errors led to partial core meltdown at the plant’s Unit 2 reactor around 4am on 28 March, 1979.

Those gathered outside the plant offered their prayers for tsunami-devastated Japan, especially people forced from their homes by the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi (foo-koo-SHEE’-mah dy-EE’-chee) nuclear complex.

Three Mile Island spokesman Ralph DeSantis says the Unit 2 disaster has taught plant operators many valuable lessons.

The Three Mile Island website from local Dickinson College has a detailed timeline of the 1979 accident and fallout here.

CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite’s broadcast on 30 March, 1979 gives a good sense of the fear of meltdown that preoccupied America in the immediate aftermath of Three Mile Island:

- Additional reporting AP