The China Syndrome

KXLA Television human interest reporter Kimberly Wells aspires to do hard hitting news stories, whereas station brass wants to keep her to her current position; they're more concerned about the color, length and style of her hair than her investigative abilities. While doing a human interest story at the Ventana nuclear power plant, she may have stumbled onto her dream story when on-site she witnesses what she thinks is a near nuclear disaster. Her freelance cameraman and friend, Richard Adams, clandestinely films the event as it unfolds in Ventana's control room. However, station brass quashes the story due in part to liability issues. Although disappointed, Kimberly initially follows her boss' directives as she wants to protect her career path, whereas Richard wants to use the film to really find out what happened. Uncovering the truth hits an early snag when the regulatory commission reports that the plant faced no major issue during the incident. Both Kimberly and Richard believe the quick and favorable report was due to the fact that development of another nuclear power plant is currently going through the public consultation process. Back at the plant, Jack Godell, the supervisor on duty in the control room during the incident, believes that something indeed is wrong with the plant due to the event, when he felt a tremor on-site. His beliefs are strengthened due to some radioactive leak in the plant from an unknown source and the discovery of some falsified documents, the latter which he knows may be a threat to his life by the perpetrators. Jack, with Kimberly and Richard's help, does whatever he can to get his story into the public consciousness to avert what he thinks is a potential nuclear meltdown at the plant. But the power company is determined to keep Jack quiet and to protect their billion dollar investment, namely Ventana.