On March 28, 1979, the most serious nuclear accident in U.S. history occurred at the power plant on Three Mile Island, south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A failure in a cooling pump melted a significant amount of fuel and released radioactive gas into the environment. No lives were lost, but the surrounding area was evacuated for a week. Aware of Kemeny's extensive study of complex systems, President Jimmy Carter called him personally to ask him to chair the commission investigating the accident. The Kemeny Commission undertook a thorough review, plunging Kemeny headlong into a year of Washington bureaucracy. It was, he recalled ruefully, the year "that a nuclear accident happened to the president of Dartmouth." In a supplemental opinion to the commission's final report, Kemeny urged a stringent review of building permits for nuclear plants, as well as public accountability. On his return to Hanover, he addressed a packed Spaulding Auditorium crowd. "Men and women of Dartmouth," he said, "After six months in Washington you can't imagine how nice it is to return to civilization."

READ MORE: The Accident At Three Mile Island: Supplemental View by John G. Kemeny

Photos courtesy of Metropolitan Edison Company