Nuclear Crisis at Three Mile Island Essay

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.

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]

Firstly, the atomic incidents of Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Chernobyl in Russia are often mentioned as examples for nuclear plants being unsafe. In both cases failures of workers led to a meltdown in the reactors and increased radiation in the surrounding area (Henderson 12-17). And as the recent disaster in Japan shows, a nuclear crisis cannot only be caused by human mishaps, but also by unpredictable and untamable natural hazards. Consequently, nuclear crises cannot be predicted or prevented completely. Nuclear plants are, furthermore, considered uneconomical because in the eighties the construction costs of nuclear plants were underestimated and exceeded the estimation by $100 billion (Henderson 103). Therefore, the nuclear power opponents are arguing that nuclear power is burdening the American economy unnecessarily. According to the nuclear physicist Jeff Eerkens, antinuclear groups are also claiming that nuclear power is not necessary for the future since renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal power will be providing sufficient energy for the United States, and are at the same time much cheaper than the costly nuclear power plants (Eerkens 20). Over all, opponents consider nuclear power to risky and inefficient to “deserve further support from U.S. taxpayers” (Henderson 104).

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.

This did not mean that the valve had actually performed that action, but rather that the message was received by the valve (History Channel…). The light shut off, which indicated to the operators that the valve had been opened and reclosed, however the valve did not reclose (Wikipedia). The PORV remained open and was releasing a combination of coolant and radioactive material. As coolant water was released, no instrument indicated this to the operators; the operators had only been trained to estimate the amount of water in the reactor by doing calculations based upon pressure readings. These pressure readings were now skewed and thus the calculations were wrong and based upon these wrong calculations, the operators stopped the flow of cooling water to the reactor. The lack of water caused overheating within the reactor and according to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s findings, about half of the reactor’s core melted. Operators had no way of knowing this and also were not trained to handle such an event. Unlike the event at Chernobyl, the reactor stayed intact and massive amounts of radiation were not leaked into the surrounding area. This containment, led nuclear engineer, Jack Herbein to announce publically that the citizens of Harrisburg were in no danger. Herbein’s comments on the plant were near fraudulent because no one was certain as to the actual danger that they were in

Arjun Makhijani, a prominent researcher for The Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, claims that today’s emission rate of carbon dioxide is about nine gigatons annually and that the Earth only has the capability to absorb 3 gigatons annually—thus a problem arises. Furthermore, Makhijani states that about 2/3rds of the carbon dioxide emissions are caused by the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum. With those shocking statistics in mind, fossil fuel’s emission of carbon dioxide is thought to be the leading cause of climate change—which is responsible for irreversible and catastrophic changes to the Earth. Yet, scientist had tremendous difficulty finding a safe, effective, and efficient form of energy supply that will met the great consumption rate. Many prominent scientist suggest that nuclear power is the most plausible explanation and solution to the fuel crisis. However, despite nuclear power having a exponentially lower emission rate, it presents its own hazards and threats—such as the Chernobyl and the Three Mile Island incidents. These accidents have many activists and politicians cautious about the prospect of using nuclear power as a complete alternative to fossil fuels—regardless nuclear plants are responsible for 11% of the energy supplied to the world annually (World Nuclear Association.) What many of the activist and politicians seem to overlook is that fossil fuels are an indefinite energy supply and will quite possible run out within

On March 1979, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Three Mile Island there were misread gauges and poor decision that lead to the melting of the core reactor. But after the core melted

On Wednesday, March 28, 1979, around 4 a.m., there was a failure in the water pumps at the Three Mile Island in Middletown, Pennsylvania. This led to a partial meltdown of a nuclear power plant. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now Health and Human Services), the Department of Energy, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania all conducted particular studies of the radiological consequences of the accident. Approximately two million people were estimated to have received an average of one millirem of radiation, and there was a maximum dose to a person who was at the site of 100 millirem (“Backgrounder”). To put this into perspective, an exposure from a single chest X-ray is two to six millirem (“Doses”). However, this put fear into the minds of politicians and others all across the country. What the people do not know, though, is nuclear is better. Instead of using fossil-fuels and wind power, America ought to switch to nuclear energy to power the country because it is safer, cleaner, less expensive, and more reliable than the current ways of producing energy

First and foremost Three Mile Island (TMI) is going through a debate on why it should close, or why it should stay open. In my opinion TMI should stay open for multiple reasons, all conclude with the Earth, and Money. When a small load is made in each Nuclear Power Plant makes it can generate 18 months of electricity for the area around it. This is wonderful for humans this means we will burn less Fossil Fuels and this means we can have them longer. It also means that we will not receive more pollution than we already have in the air. Another reason keeping this energy is that it saved 1.3 millions of lives. How does nuclear power save lives? Nuclear energy causes less air pollution, and this means 1.84 millions of lives are being saved, these

* This was troublesome, since the cool water was used to reduce the heat of the reaction.

Countless nuclear power plant accidents have been occurring quite frequently since its invention. Some accidents have even been underestimated,

left all but six. By 1:00 Am the power risen to 200 MW, which was

Many critics argue that due to the Three Mile Island nuclear incident that occurred March 28, 1979, in Pennsylvania resulted in a reactor meltdown, with no casualties due to a combination of equipment failure and a lack of operators understanding what to do to a faulty reactor. This incident has put the majority public to have safety concerns over not only the operators working in the plants but also the civilians in the surrounding area. Yet since the accident, the United States formed the National Academy for Nuclear Training to improve training the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations which reviews and accredits nuclear utilities’ training programs for all key positions at each plant. In addition, nuclear energy plants have proven the ability to produce clean electricity without greenhouse gas emissions and the reliability due to its increased efficiency and increased power output.

Three Mile Island nuclear plant is located in Pennsylvania, United State. The accident began on 28 March, 1979, a core meltdown in TMI-2 reactor. According to accident report, it was attributed by both human factors and mechanical failures: Something wrong happened in TMI-2’s secondary system, and resulted in a series of failures. The pilot-operated relief valve (PORV) automatically opened, but did not closed, which led coolant water to escape. The operator misread the situation and did not take proper actions in the first place due to inadequate training. The accident finally led to the release of about 2.5 million curies of radioactive gases, and 15 curies of radioiodine.