Summary: The 1979 Nuclear Disaster

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.

Nuclear energy is the energy released by a nuclear reaction, it uses fuel made from mined and processed uranium to generate heat and electricity. It is the world’s largest emission free energy source. Nuclear energy also has the lowest impact on the environment than other energy sources. But it can still be very harmful because of the radiation is causes and the radioactive waste it produces. Radioactive wastes are the ruins of nuclear materials that are used in providing nuclear energy. These wastes contain high levels of radiation that can be very hazardous to humans and the environment. Some people accept and support the idea of using nuclear energy and others don’t. In the following paragraphs, some major nuclear accidents and the public acceptance of nuclear energy will be discussed.

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.

for the next time they would be able to conduct would be in one year

Have you ever wondered why only limited countries in the world, have their hand on nuclear energy? This could have many reasons, but mainly it is due to a lack of technology, and science needed to operate such stations. Ukraine was one of such countries that opened a nuclear power plant in 1977, an era in which the majority of the developed countries turned their backs on the most popular source of energy: oil, and slowly replaced it with nuclear energy. The Chernobyl nuclear accident in the Ukraine that occurred in 1986, was caused by untrained personnel, leading to both long and short term consequences.

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.

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.

On April 26, 1986 a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant experienced a catastrophic meltdown that emitted radioactive material into the atmosphere, killing 31 people.

This quote, which I obtained from the newspaper The Guardian’s website, is from Sasha Yuvchenko, a former employee at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. What he didn’t know at the time of the event he was describing was that he had just experienced the worst nuclear explosion in history.

The Three Mile Island TMI-2 incident had a large impact on world history. It showed America their first glimpse of what can happen with nuclear power, it foreshadowed the Chernobyl incident eight years later, it decreased public opinion of nuclear power, and it increased safety standards for nuclear reactors across the world. Three Mile Island is a nuclear power plant in Southeastern Pennsylvania with two nuclear fission reactors. On March 28, 1979, reactor two suffered a partial core meltdown that caused a widespread radiation scare. Although negligible amounts of radiation actually escaped into the atmosphere, nearby towns were left deserted for a couple days until the media finally got the story straight and the government released an official

Thomas J. Watson once said, “go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can, because that 's where you will find success: on the far side of failure.” Making mistakes or failures are a part of life, as Watson puts it, it is vital to make mistakes and learn from them. Making mistakes is an integral part of innovation. It is the ability to overcome these faults; faults allow humans to grow and expand on the knowledge of the unknown so that in the future we are well prepared for the unexpected. By understanding from previous failures, it stimulates innovation, new ways to approach and triumph over obstacles.

It is within human nature to try to cover up or conceal mistakes. However, sometimes the scale of these mistakes can be excessive, and attempting to cover them up can even endanger millions. Such a cover up, was the scenario induced by the Soviet government, while trying to withhold information concerning a nuclear disaster. The catastrophic mishap, took place on April 26, 1986, when a nuclear reactor exploded in modern day Ukraine. A maintenance test error resulted in an explosion in Unit 4 Furthermore, futile attempts trying to subdue the damage actually caused radioactive materials to ascend more rapidly, and formed a radioactive cloud extending over a large portion of Northwestern Europe and Russia. Despite the magnitude of the event,

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

On May 28, 1979, around 4 a.m. in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, the worst nuclear accident in United States history occurred (Backgrounder…). The Metropolitan Edison Company was operating Reactor 2 as normal but then it suddenly shutdown due to a rise in the temperature of the coolant feed. When functioning properly, the reactor is cooled by a steady stream of a coolant water that flows into and then out of the reactor which is the cooled and recycled back to the reactor. However, the temperature of the inlet, coolant feed increased and caused the reactor to

Have you ever imagined the end of the Earth? Let’s take the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 for example, and look at how the explosion affected some parts of the world. Large areas were affected by the Chernobyl explosion. Many things and properties were destroyed because of this. People, animals, and plants were affected by the explosion and it made many suffer. It took many people to begin cleaning up the mess, and they got sick. There is still a lot of damage there. It’s very scary to know that an accident like this could occur again.