News In Brief

Grand jury indicts firm that ran 3 Mile Island

A grand jury's charge that records were falsified at Three Mile Island before the nation's worst commercial nuclear accident proves the plant should be closed for good, TMI opponents say. But officials of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will make a final decision on whether to restart TMI's undamaged Unit 1 reactor, declined to discuss the possible effects of Monday's indictment. A federal grand jury indicted Metropolitan Edison Company on charges of covering up by ''trick, scheme and device'' falsified water-leak-rate records at TMI before the 1979 accident. If found guilty, the company could be fined a maximum of $85,000.