How Did The Three Mile Island Meltdown

This research paper discusses the Three Mile Island incident to include what started it, the results in the aftermath, and how it could have been prevented. The Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor, near Middletown, Pa., partially melted down on March 28, 1979. This was the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history, although its small radioactive releases had no detectable health effects on plant workers or the public. Its aftermath brought about sweeping changes involving emergency response planning, reactor operator training, human factors engineering, radiation protection, and many other areas of nuclear power plant operations. It also caused the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) to tighten and

Three Mile Island in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contained the most serious commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history. The events that followed taught the U.S. a lesson learned about nuclear power and the damage it can cause. The Three Mile accident paved the way for reforms in the way nuclear power plants were operated and regulated. the location of the island, the accident, the meltdown, the aftermath, and the media circus were all critical points in the lessons learned.

The Fukushima Daiichi power station was affected on March 11, 2011, by an earthquake and tsunami. The next day, leakage of radioactive materials were found. The steam was filled in the building by the core meltdown caused by dysfunction of the cooling system. Radioactive materials released into the environment, the government issued evacuations for residents within 20km

This accident has been, by far the worst nuclear power plant accident within the borders of the United States.However, the studies conducted by governmental groups such as the Nuclear Regulatory Committee (NRC), the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Health, Department of Energy, and the State of Pennsylvania as well as numerous independent organizations have deemed that the accident at Three Mile Island had very little, if an at all, effects on the health of the communities surrounding the plant.[8]

As humans we want to have a good life, have a home, maybe a family and feel safe. With the advances in industry such as energy production we can have more luxuries which include heat, lights and running water. However, as technology gets bigger and better there will always be risks that can lead to catastrophic outcomes. Luckily for the United States; we did not have a disastrous outcome with a nuclear power plant such as the 1986’s Chernobyl Nuclear Power plant catastrophe, making, ”the Chernobyl disaster the only level 7 incident on the International Nuclear Event Scales (INES) making it the biggest man-made disaster of all time” (List 25, 2014) . Three Mile Island power plants is located near Middletown Pennsylvania. On March 28, 1979, the plant had a partial meltdown. Even though the Three Mile Island power plant incident did not have any adverse health effects, Three Mile Island had an impact on the nuclear industry development and politically in the United States.

In March of 1979, just ten miles south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Nuclear Power Plant at Three Mile Island Unit 2 came close to nuclear melt down. Despite standards set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the plant ran for several years prior to the accident under poor conditions. Communication certainly played a role in this near tragedy, as two engineers had foreseen the consequences, but their advice went unheeded. Although most of the economic and social impacts of this incident were minimal, this unpleasant event ended the nuclear power industry in America.

At four o’clock in the morning, on March 28th, 1979, reactor two at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant overheated due to a cooling pipe that was mistakenly closed. After a series of mechanical and human errors, reactor two partially melted down. To release pressure in the chamber radioactive gasses had to be released into the atmosphere. Residents of nearby town Londonderry, Pennsylvania, were not evacuated as they were never exposed to unsafe levels of radiation. It was not for hours after the incident at the power plant had been of concern that the mayor of Londonderry was alerted. Citizens of Londonderry and the nearby areas were unaware of evacuation and contingency

"Backgrounder on the Three Mile Island Accident." NRC:. United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, n.d. Web. 15 May 2016.

Three Mile Island accident was the most severe disaster in U.S. nuclear power plant history, in spite of the fact that its little radioactive discharges had no recognizable health consequences for power plant laborers or the general population. In late 1970's failing of Three Mile Island-2 was watched and radioactivity discharges to the surroundings. Plant Engineers trusted the incident was because of failure in cooling systems; the generated heat remains in the reactor, which leads increase in pressure. According to the rector structure, the valve was not closed and the machine in the control room it peruses the valve was shut. As a result alternate instruments in the plant appeared insufficient subtle elements to follow genuine reason

Disasters made by error of a man-made machines can lead to as much wreckage as a hurricane or tornado. These lead to hurt in the communities that were affected, as well as the economic state of the government. Man made disasters can also lead to very critical change in the public’s opinion on the use of the certain energy source. If the opinion changes to being against the use of the power source, it can impact the stock and profit the industry’s make. On Wednesday March 28, 1979 in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, the Three Mile Island nuclear plant had a failure in the cooling core in the #2 reactor. The TMI-2 reactor was destroyed and 13 million curies of radioactive gas was released into the air. 31 years later on April 20, 2010 the BP pipe 5000 feet beneath the oceans surface was leaking oil and gas. This pipe would continue to pour oil and gas into the ocean for 87 days before being capped off. The Gulf Oil Spill affected and continues to affect the citizens of the United States of America and the ecosystems around the area more than Three Mile Island disaster did because of the lives lost, amount of lives affected and damage it did to the area.

There have been lots of nuclear accident around the world. One of the accident that had a major impact on the world was the Chernobyl disaster. The disaster took place on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. The disaster was caused by a reaction explosion induced by design faults and staff application errors. The accident took place in the course of scheduled tests to check the power supply mode in the event of external sources loss. Even after 10 days, explosions and ejections of radioactive substances continued. The release of radiation and radioactive substance polluted the places within 30 km of Chernobyl, and those areas have been closed for a long period of

The reactor was overheating to the point it was emitting radioactive material. The Tokyo Energy Power Company admitted that they failed to inspect thirty-three cooling system equipment for the six reactors about two weeks before the disaster (NYTimes.com).

he Three Mile Island plant failure, one of the only serious incidents in the USA, started

The Three Mile Island disaster occurred on March 28, 1979. The nuclear plant, in the small community of Middleton, PA, experienced a partial meltdown in the Unit 2 reactor. Many factors contributed to the meltdown. Human error, mechanical failure, and communication breakdowns all contributed, as well as, exacerbated the disaster. Over the course of approximately one week, many theories, projections, announcements and media speculation led to widespread public fear and mistrust. Many experts considered the disaster at Three Mile Island to be the worst disaster in privately owned nuclear energy history within the United States. Estimations of radiation leakage showed a wide range of amounts. This is still a point of contention, as no

What started out as a safety test for Reactor Four of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant ended in what is known to be the worst nuclear accident in modern day history (Ingram, 2005). Why? The Chernobyl nuclear accident is the only one, in the history of commercial nuclear power, in which fatalities occurred due to radioactive particles being released into the atmosphere (Nuclear Energy Institute, 2015). It was unique. Unique, not only due to deaths from the radiation released, but also unique in the events before and after the disaster itself.