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."

Photos courtesy of Metropolitan Edison Company