Albert Bahlinger Wohlsen, Jr. (November 21, 1919 – January 12, 2004) was an American businessman and politician, who served as the interim Mayor of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from 1979 to 1980.
He was the mayor during the partial meltdown at the nearby Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station, which occurred only a few weeks into his term.
[4] Other city officials encouraged him to order elderly residents of high-rises to travel to their families ahead of a general evacuation, but Wohlsen refused, concerned it would incite panic.
Although Wohlsen himself described it as a "little, cheap radio", it served as the primary source to city officials for news about the accident for the next several months.
During the meltdown, Thornburgh considered evacuating Harrisburg and Elizabethtown residents to Lancaster, where they would stay in dormitories at Franklin & Marshall and Millersville State colleges.
[3] Wohlsen spent many of the months following the meltdown involved in legal battles with Three Mile Island and presenting testimony before presidential and congressional committees.
[1] In a May 1979 letter to Thornburgh, Wohlsen voiced strong opposition to plans to discharge 600,000 gallons of treated radioactive water into the Susquehanna River.
Wohlsen also testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee on nuclear regulation in November 1979, where he complained that energy company Met-Ed, the owner of the plant, was "resistive to good, tough public review of the cleanup operations".
[3] Also during his tenure as mayor, Wohlsen formed the city's first mounted police unit, which was supported by donations from Lancaster County residents.
In 1989, Wohlsen ran Republican candidate Mary Lou Broucht's unsuccessful campaign for Lancaster mayor.