The Three Mile Island Public Health Fund was established in 1981 to provide remedies to businesses and individuals affected by the accident at the Three Mile Island facility on March 29, 1979. Funding was established as the result of a successful lawsuit against GPU, the TMI plant operator. The Fund is administered by the law firm of Berger & Montague, P.C. All disbursements from the Fund have been approved by the Honorable Sylvia Rambo, Middle Pennsylvania Federal Court.

The Fund convened a Scientific Advisory Board, chaired by Dr. Karl Morgan, known as the Father of Modern Health Physics. Other panel members were Dr. George Woodwell, Director of Woods Hole Research Institute; Dr. Thomas Cochran, staff scientist for NRDC; Dr. Jack Cobb, and Dr. Jack Geiger. With the oversight of the Advisory Board, the Fund commissioned studies on a number of related issues, including health effects of radiation, the psychological impact of the accident, and emergency preparedness in the event of another accident. A major study performed for the Fund by the Natural Acadamy of Sciences focused on radiation monitoring issues.

A common thread that ran through all concerns about the accident was the lack of adequate and accessible data about radiation levels during and after the accident. Trust was another significant issue. Misinformation supplied by the plant operator, GPU, damaged community relations. The NRC and other agencies did not handle the situation in ways that allayed public concerns.

The Scientific Advisory Board felt that the antidote to this mistrust and lack of information was an independently operated environmental radiation monitoring system. Fulfilling this recommendation, the Fund has supported the work of TMI-CMN since 1993. The equipment manufacturer, International Medcom, worked with the Fund, its Scientific Advisory Board, and TMI-CMN over a period of several years to develop the system. Monitoring efforts began in 1992. Real time monitoring with a radio telemetry link from automated remote monitoring stations to a central station at TMI-CMN began in 1995. New technologies have allowed the system to evolve over the past several years to include a public access voice information system and this world wide web site.