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The Cosmology of Evidence: Suffering, Science, and Biological Witness After Three Mile Island

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Abstract

The 1979 partial nuclear reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island was simultaneously hyper-visible and hidden from public view. It was the subject of non-stop media attention, but its causes and consequences required expert explanation. No fire or explosion marked the moment when insensible radionuclides escaped the facility. Yet, residents recalled a variety of troubling sights, sounds, odors, tastes, and sensations. Public distrust percolated in the interstices between government assertions that little radiation had escaped the facility and residents’ sense memories of the incident. This article traces intertwined networks of activists from Japan and Pennsylvania as they mobilized legally, politically, and scientifically to develop evidence about the offsite effects of Three Mile Island. Exploring the distinct cosmology of evidence that activists marshaled, the article shows how they placed the messy, contingent, dynamic living world at the center of inquiries about the meltdown’s consequences. Activists developed new practices of biological witness that reconfigured the interplay between scientific, legal, and moral authority, while concurrently reformulating sufferers’ subjectivities and notions of scientific objectivity. In the process, they suggested that environmental justice entailed epistemic justice. Their cosmology of evidence served as an argument and a material proof that the beloved but suffering living world, and the sciences used to understand it, could and should frame the governance of industrial society’s invisible harms.

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Article Open access 21 February 2023

Sarah Monod de Froideville & Andrew Gibbs

Notes

  1. Marie Holowka Affidavit, n.d. [ca. 1986], 003436, Volume V, Consolidated Appendix, In re Three Mile Island, Nos. 96-7623, 96-7624, 96-7625, 193 F.3d 613 (3d Cir. 1999), Federal Record Center, Philadelphia, PA (hereafter cited as Consolidated Appendix). Pinpoint citations are given to the unique Bates stamp identifiers used to organize the pages of voluminous trial records into a progressive, consecutively numbered series.

  2. I use the term sense memories to refer to residents’ recollections of what they saw, felt, heard, smelled, and tasted after TMI. As Joy Parr (2010) has established, embodied practices of sensing have been an important mode of knowledge-making about environments and technology.

  3. TMI was the first major civilian nuclear reactor incident worldwide. Rich scholarly accounts chronicle its influence on nuclear regulation and political culture in the US and internationally (Walsh 1988; Walker 2004; Bösch 2017; Zaretsky 2018). Activists’ knowledge claims and legal claims, however, remain largely unexplored.

  4. While sociolegal studies has a long tradition of examining the importance of legal mobilization outside the courtroom (see McCann 1994), scholars have often focused on the interplay between legal action, culture, and ideology (see generally McCann 2008). The production of evidence here also demonstrates interventions of, and intersections between, law and the material world (see generally Faulkner et al. 2012).

  5. Testimony of Douglas Crawford-Brown, Transcript of Proceedings, In Limine Hearing, Volume 23, November 30, 1995, 003260, Volume V, Consolidated Appendix.

  6. These activities included attempts to make knowledge through practices of health surveying. Brown (1992) has referred to this kind of work as “popular epidemiology.” Numerous studies trace instances of popular epidemiology and citizen science, but few besides Kimura (2016) study in-depth citizen mobilization to detect radiological harm.

  7. Scholars use the term epistemic injustice to describe many different kinds of inequity embedded in processes of knowledge-making, chiefly ones suffered by marginalized communities whose agency as knowers is limited (see Fricker 2007; Grasswick 2018).

  8. Mitsuri Katagiri and Aileen Smith Katagiri, Presentation, March 3, 1983, Folder 6, Box 5, Beverly Hess Papers, Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections, Carlisle, PA (hereafter cited as Hess Papers).

  9. Stephen R. Reed to Joseph M. Hendrie, August 8, 1979; Joseph M. Hendrie to Stephen R. Reed, September 20, 1979, reproduced in Hajime Nakao (Mitsuru Katagiri), Three Mile Island: The Language of Science and the People’s Reality, Part Two, trans. Rebecca Jennison, The Kyoto Review 13, Spring 1981, in Folder 11, Box 5, Hess Papers (hereafter cited as Katagiri, Three Mile Island, Part Two).

  10. Mitsuru Katagiri, open letter, July 18, 1979, Folder 7, Box 1, Hess Papers.

  11. Mitsuru Katagiri, open letter, July 18, 1979, Folder 7, Box 1, Hess Papers.

  12. Today, Aileen Mioko Smith is a well-known antinuclear activist in Japan. She was married to Mitsuru Katagiri through much of her work on TMI. During that time, she often went by the name Aileen Smith Katagiri. I refer to her in the text as Aileen Mioko Smith because this is the name she uses today and by which she is best known.

  13. Kazuyoshi Fujita, Mitsuyuki Suga, N. Shibata, and K. Kumano to Richard and Beverly Hess, September 29, 1979, Folder 7, Box 1, Hess Papers; Hajime Nakao (Mitsuru Katagiri), Three Mile Island: The Language of Science and the People’s Reality, Part One, trans. Sara Acherman and Rebecca Jennison, The Kyoto Review 12, Spring 1980, in Folder 11, Box 5, Hess Papers (hereafter cited as Katagiri, Three Mile Island, Part One).

  14. Kazuyoshi Fujita, Mitsuyuki Suga, N. Shibata, and K. Kumano to Richard and Beverly Hess, September 29, 1979, Folder 7, Box 1, Hess Papers.

  15. Kazuyoshi Fujita, Mitsuyuki Suga, N. Shibata, and K. Kumano to Richard and Beverly Hess, September 29, 1979, Folder 7, Box 1, Hess Papers; Katsuyuki Kumano to Beverly and Richard Hess, April 27, 1980 and April 22, 1983, Folder 7, Box 1, Hess Papers.

  16. Kazuyoshi Fujita, Mitsuyuki Suga, N. Shibata, and K. Kumano to Richard and Beverly Hess, September 29, 1979, Folder 7, Box 1, Hess Papers; Katsuyuki Kumano to Beverly and Richard Hess, April 27, 1980 and April 22, 1983, Folder 7, Box 1, Hess Papers; Mitsuru Katagiri to Beverly and Richard Hess, September 13, 1979, Folder 7, Box 1, Hess Papers.

  17. Mitsuri Katagiri and Aileen Smith Katagiri, Presentation, March 3, 1983, Folder 6, Box 5, Hess Papers.

  18. Mitsuru Katagiri to Beverly and Richard Hess, Sept 23, 1979, Folder 7, Box 1, Hess Papers.

  19. Katagiri, Three Mile Island, Part Two.

  20. Mitsuru Katagiri, Purpose and Methods, November 20, 1980, Folder 7, Box 1, Hess Papers.

  21. See, for example, Aileen Smith Katagiri and Mitsuru Katagiri, October 1982, Three Mile Island Revisited, Folder 6, Box 5; Mitsuri Katagiri and Aileen Smith Katagiri, Presentation, March 3, 1983, Folder 6, Box 5, Hess Papers.

  22. Mitsuri Katagiri and Aileen Smith Katagiri, Presentation, March 3, 1983, Folder 6, Box 5, Hess Papers; see also Kazuyoshi Fujita, Mitsuyuki Suga, N. Shibata, and K. Kumano to Richard and Beverly Hess, September 29, 1979, Folder 7, Box 1, Hess Papers.

  23. Katagiri, Three Mile Island, Part One; Mitsuri Katagiri and Aileen Smith Katagiri, Presentation, March 3, 1983, Folder 6, Box 5, Hess Papers.

  24. Katagiri, Three Mile Island, Part Two. These interviews were the only major source of in-depth interview data covering residents’ experiences. See Jonathan Berger, Executive Secretary, Public Health Fund Advisory Board to Mitsuru Katagiri, May 31, 1984, Folder 12, Box 2, Hess Papers.

  25. For interviews from which this composite was drawn, see Smith (1989); Katagiri, Three Mile Island, Part One; Katagiri, Three Mile Island, Part Two.

  26. Kazuyoshi Fujita, Mitsuyuki Suga, N. Shibata, and K. Kumano to Richard and Beverly Hess, September 29, 1979, Folder 7, Box 1, Hess Papers; Katagiri, Three Mile Island, Part One, and Three Mile Island, Part Two.

  27. Linda Lotz to Dan Burnstein, July 9, 1984, Folder 12, Box 2, Hess Papers.

  28. Francine Z. Taylor to Daniel Berger, Esq. September 13, 1982, Folder 12, Box 2, Hess Papers.

  29. Stipulation of Settlement and Agreement, In re Three Mile Island Litigation, Civ. No. 79-0432, February 17, 1981, Folder 14, Box 91, Series IV, Ruth Patrick Papers, Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA (hereafter cited as Patrick Papers).

  30. The board members were Dean Abrahamson, John “Jock” Cobb, Thomas Cochran, Ian McHarg, Karl Z. Morgan, Edward P. Radford, Frank von Hippel, and George Woodwell (Three Mile Island Public Health Fund 1985, pp. xix–xxiv).

  31. Journal of Scientific Advisor, May 25, 1981, Folder 2, Box 33, MS Coll. 144, Baruch S. Blumberg Papers, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA (hereafter cited as Blumberg Papers).

  32. See, for example, Mary Osbakken, MD, PhD to Judge Sylvia Rambo, July 11, 1984, Folder 12, Box 2, Hess Papers.

  33. See Stipulation of Settlement and Agreement, In re Three Mile Island Litigation, Civ. No. 79-0432, February 17, 1981, Folder 14, Box 91, Series IV, Patrick Papers.

  34. Report of the TMI Public Health Fund on the December 15, 1983 Public Meeting, Folder: TMI Court Petition 1983, Box 93, Patrick Papers.

  35. Linda Lotz to Dan Burnstein, July 9, 1984, Folder 12, Box 2, Hess Papers.

  36. Linda Lotz to Dan Burnstein, July 9, 1984, Folder 12, Box 2, Hess Papers; Statement of Carl C. Johnson, MD, MPH, in supplement to the Statement of the Aamodts to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, May 22, 1985, Folder 6, Box 1, John H. Murdoch Papers, Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections, Carlisle, PA (hereafter cited as Murdoch Papers).

  37. Marjorie M. Aamodt, The Three Mile Island Accident: An Investigation of the Effect of the Health of Residents and Flora in the Areas WNW and SW of TMI, Folder 5, Box 4, Hess Papers (hereafter cited as Aamodt, The Three Mile Island Accident).

  38. Aamodt, The Three Mile Island Accident.

  39. Affidavit of James E. Gunckel, 003299–003303, Volume V, Consolidated Appendix.

  40. Aamodt, The Three Mile Island Accident.

  41. Norman and Marjorie Aamodt to Chairman Nunzio J. Palladino, US NRC, Sept 10, 1981, Folder 6, Box 5, Hess Papers.

  42. Aamodt Rebuttal of Pennsylvania Health Department Report on Cancer Mortality, 1985, Folder 6, Box 1, Murdoch Papers.

  43. Aamodt, The Three Mile Island Accident.

  44. Statement of Carl C. Johnson, MD, MPH, in supplement to the Statement of the Aamodts to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, May 22, 1985, Folder 6, Box 1, Murdoch Papers.

  45. Glyn C. Caldwell to William A. Mills, Sept 7, 1984, Folder 4, Box 5, Hess Papers.

  46. See my forthcoming article, “Mapping Three Mile Island: Nuclear Liability & Compensation in the United States,” to appear in Nuclear Disaster Compensation: A Call for Action, ed. Hirokazu Miyazaki.

  47. In re TMI Litig. Consol., 927 F. Supp. 834, 865 (M.D. Pa. 1996).

  48. See also Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 509 U.S. 579 (1993).

  49. For a full list of criteria, see In re TMI Cases Consol. II, 911 F. Supp. 775, 787 (M.D. Pa. 1996).

  50. In re TMI Cases Consol. II, 911 F. Supp. at 789–827. The plaintiffs’ chief expert supporting this theory recanted during the course of the litigation, but it nevertheless remained the basis of the plaintiffs’ claims.

  51. Curriculum Vitae of Vladimir A. Shevchenko, 004159–004197, Volume VI, Consolidated Appendix.

  52. Testimony of Ignaz Vergeiner, Transcript of In Limine Hearings, Volume 8, November 16, 1995, 003996–004003, Volume V, Consolidated Appendix.

  53. Affidavit of Douglas J. Crawford-Brown, May 26, 1994, 003027–003035, Volume V, Consolidated Appendix.

  54. Steve Wing, Rita Fellers, and Lucy Peipins, Mortality Trends in Relation to the Accident at Three Mile Island, January 1994, 006831–006832, Volume VIII, Consolidated Appendix.

  55. Summary of the TMI Public Health Fund Workshop, December 6–7, 1982, Folder 7, Box 328, Blumberg Papers; Victor Schoenbach, Interview of Steven Wing, July 15, 2015, available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8phyT1CM4O8N7YJ_cwmtMg/videos.

  56. Affidavit of Ignaz Vergeiner, May 24, 1993, 003577, Volume V, Consolidated Appendix.

  57. Deposition of James E. Gunckel, June 7, 1995, 003377, 003400, Volume V, Consolidated Appendix; Galina Snigiryova, Cytogenetic Analysis of the People Living in the Neighborhood of the TMI Nuclear Power Plant, 005103–005117, Volume VI, Consolidated Appendix; Olga Tarasenko, Immunological Analysis, 005209–005212, Volume VI, Consolidated Appendix.

  58. Testimony of Gennady Kozubov, 005187, Transcript of In Limine Hearing, Volume 20, November 28, 1995, Volume VI, Consolidated Appendix; Deposition of James E. Gunckel, June 7, 1995, 003377, 003400, Volume V, Consolidated Appendix.

  59. Galina Snigiryova, Cytogenetic Analysis of the People Living in the Neighborhood of the TMI Nuclear Power Plant, 005103–005117, Volume VI, Consolidated Appendix; Olga Tarasenko, Immunological Analysis, 005209–005212, Volume VI, Consolidated Appendix.

  60. Deposition of Steven Bennett Wing, CV-88-1452, February 3, 1994, 006942–007196, Volume VIII, Consolidated Appendix.

  61. Testimony of Douglas Crawford-Brown, Transcript of Proceedings, In Limine Hearing, Volume 23, November 30, 1995, 003260, Volume V, Consolidated Appendix.

  62. Ignaz Vergeiner, Reply to In-limine challenge by Defendants, 003837, Volume V, Consolidated Appendix.

  63. Affidavit of Judicial Respondent, No. 96-7624, May 7, 1996, 009703, Volume X, Consolidated Appendix.

  64. Fed. R. Evid. 803(8).

  65. In re TMI Litig. Consol., 927 F. Supp. at 850–856.

  66. In re TMI Litig. Consol., 927 F. Supp. at 857–870; In re TMI, 193 F.2d 613, 666–722 (3d Cir. 1999).

  67. In re TMI, 193 F.2d 613; In re TMI Cases Consol. II, 53 Fed. Appx. 648 (3d Cir. 2002). The appeal was complicated procedurally. Although the circuit court affirmed summary judgment, it did not agree with all aspects of the lower court’s evidentiary decision-making. The final disposition of the case, moreover, was a non-precedential opinion. It applied only to the TMI disputes.

  68. Of course, as voluminous scholarship on both science and human rights teaches, claims to universality perform political work and are never truly universal.

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Funding was provided by David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future , Cornell University.

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    M. X. Mitchell

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Mitchell, M.X. The Cosmology of Evidence: Suffering, Science, and Biological Witness After Three Mile Island. J Hist Biol 54, 7–29 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-021-09627-8

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