How Small Problems Snowball Into Big Disasters

Published: April 20, 2018, 9:30 a.m.

The Three Mile Island disaster caused hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate their homes. It absolutely dominated the news cycle. It led to a complete rethinking of nuclear energy. And it all stemmed from a plumbing problem, a valve that didn\u2019t shut.

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But the Three Mile Island accident isn\u2019t the only meltdown caused by a seemingly small issue that snowballed into a gigantic disaster. To find out exactly how this happens, we talked with Chris Clearfield, co-author of \u201cMeltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About it.\u201d