Do you remember where you were when the Challenger exploded? Do you remember where you were when President Reagan was shot? Do you remember where you were ten years ago today?

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the accident at Three Mile Island, and many people in State College still recall this tense period in Pennsylvania's history.

Phillip Stebbins, an associate professor of history at the University, said that on the day of the accident, he was supposed to be going to Harrisburg with some other professors for a meeting of the Pennsylvania Historical Association.

Then he heard about the accident on a newscast. Stebbins said, "We had to decide, 'Do we go or don't we go?' "

Stebbins called a friend in Harrisburg, who said he was already preparing to evacuate. Stebbins decided not to go to Harrisburg.

The accident, which according to Time magazine involved radioactive steam and gas escaping from the plant, created a feeling of panic in Harrisburg, because everyone was trying to find out what was happening and "to find a way out," Stebbins said. There was also concern about looting once people started to leave.

Stebbins said in contrast, people in State College were not as worried as those in Harrisburg. Local officials told residents not to worry; if nuclear fallout occurred it would drift about 90 miles in an easterly direction because of wind patterns. State College is northwest of Three Mile Island and therefore was not considered at risk.

However, wind currents at the time switched direction to the west, Stebbins said, and if fallout had occurred, State College could have been in danger. He said in spite of the change in weather patterns, State College residents were still not concerned.

"Life goes on even if you're sitting on a ticking bomb," he said.

Stebbins said that in hindsight, the possibility of danger was greater than State College residents realized. There was not much talk about the accident, he said.

Warren Witzig was head of the department of nuclear engineering at the time of the accident. He said he heard about the accident on the radio as he was driving into State College on the morning of March 28.

Witzig said his first thought was,"What could be going on?"

When professors in the nuclear engineering department heard about the release of radiation, several volunteered their services. Two years later, in 1981, when a venting of the containment reactor was necessary, some nuclear engineering professors volunteered to teach a class totaling 50 hours for Harrisburg citizens to learn about radiation effects, Witzig said.

When asked about State College's reaction to the accident, Witzig said,"In my opinion, there was very little concern in State College, except for a few activists who tried to create concern."

Witzig also said people in State College were in no danger whatsoever from the radiation released.

However, Centre County was prepared to receive evacuees if the situation worsened, The Daily Collegian reported. Because of additional releases of radiation when plant workers were trying to remove radioactive water from the building, then-Gov. Dick Thornburgh closed schools, urged pregnant women and young children within a five-mile radius to move out and advised four counties in the area to prepare for evacuation, according to Time magazine. Although there was no official order to evacuate, thousands of residents decided on their own to leave.

Edward Walsh, an associate professor of sociology at the University, has done research on the reactors at Three Mile Island and has recently written a book, Democracy in the Shadows: Citizen Mobilization in the Wake of the Accident at Three Mile Island on the attempts of citizens to prevent Three Mile Island's Unit 1 reactor from reopening.

At the time of the accident, Walsh made many trips to Harrisburg for research. "I think people thought I was crazy because I was running down (to Harrisburg) all the time," he said.

Witzig said safety measures in the nuclear industry have improved "drastically" since Three Mile Island. For instance, today most nuclear power plants have simulators, there are about 50 trainers at every plant, and staff members from the Institute for Nuclear Power Operations visit every plant regularly.