Īdams has surreptitiously filmed the incident, despite being asked not to film for security reasons. The crew urgently pump water back in and celebrate in relief at bringing the reactor back under control. Godell taps the first gauge, which immediately unsticks and drops to indicate very low levels. Another operator notices a second gauge indicating low water levels.
In response to a gauge indicating high water levels, Godell begins removing water from the core, but the gauge remains high as operators open more valves to dump water. Shift Supervisor Jack Godell notices an unusual vibration in his cup of coffee. While visiting the (fictional) Ventana nuclear power plant outside Los Angeles, television news reporter Kimberly Wells, her cameraman Richard Adams and their soundman Hector Salas witness the plant going through a turbine trip and corresponding SCRAM (emergency shutdown). The film received four nominations at the 52nd Academy Awards Best Actor (for Lemmon), Best Actress (for Fonda), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Production Design. Reviewers praised the film's screenplay, direction, and performances (most notably of Fonda and Lemmon), while it grossed $51.7 million on a production budget of $5.9 million. It became a critical and commercial success.
It was theatrically released on March 16, 1979, twelve days before the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, which gave the film's subject matter an unexpected prescience. The China Syndrome premiered at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or while Lemmon received the Best Actor Prize. " China syndrome" is a fanciful term that describes a fictional result of a nuclear meltdown, where reactor components melt through their containment structures and into the underlying earth, "all the way to China". It follows a television reporter and her cameraman who discover safety coverups at a nuclear power plant. The film stars Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas (who also produced), Scott Brady, James Hampton, Peter Donat, Richard Herd, and Wilford Brimley. The China Syndrome is a 1979 American disaster thriller film directed by James Bridges and written by Bridges, Mike Gray, and T.