Three Mile Island Atomic Plant 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.

Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Station is on an island that is located about 10 miles from the town of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.The plant housed two nuclear reactors, Unit 1 and Unit 2.Now there is only one that

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 caused reactors 1 through 3 to go into a meltdown and it created a situation where Japan was on the brink of a major environmental disaster. To fully understand the different events there will be a focus on: factors that caused the meltdown, why this did not impact the other three reactors, the consequences, who is responsible and how these incidents can be prevented in the future. Together, these elements will highlight the underlying effects of this disaster and its impact on the region. ("Fukushima Accident")

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

The Manhattan Project was the code name of the America’s attempt to construct an atomic bomb during World War II. It was named after the Manhattan Engineer District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, because a lot of it’s earlier research was done in New York City. An atomic bomb is a weapon that uses the energy from a nuclear reaction called Fission for its destruction.

Firstly, being a Babcock and Wilcox plant, the Three Mile Island Plant contained that U-shaped pipe in the pressurizer. Secondly, one of the causes of the meltdown was a cease in movement in the coolant loop, which is caused by the U-shaped pipe. But if people already knew of these issues, why had they not been addressed and fixed? These warnings could have easily assisted in preventing some of the damage to the reactor, but not all of it. As previously mentioned, the partial meltdown had many factors that led to its happening, and reversing just one was not enough to fix the whole mess, but what is most important about Kelly and Michelson’s work is yet another example of government incompetence that almost led to a massive disaster. Had these warnings been acknowledged and spread, issues with the Babcock and Wilcox design could have been resolved months before the Three Mile Island incident. Not being a nuclear engineer, it is difficult to tell whether or not these issues could have prevented the meltdown, but at least the government wouldn’t have stalled vital

* Normally, in a situation where the reactor becomes unstable two fail safe measures were in place.

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

On the periodic tables, there are 26 man-made elements out of 118 total elements. An isotope is a variation of an element with different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei that can have distinct properties that make them scientifically and industrially valuable. To make a stable element protons and neutrons should cancel each other out making for a more stable nucleus. To keep element making going labs will be upgraded to next-generation atomic colliders to create many different elements.

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

The disaster took place on April 1986, and was caused by inexperienced staff. When the power plant had to undergo a special test, to make sure that sufficient amount of cooling water would be supplied to the reactor in case of a power outage. However, the test had been delayed, because the national grid required the power output more than the expected time. Hence, the test was postponed after midnight where the night shift had to come. The night shift had little experience about such a test as most of them were electrical engineers rather than nuclear. On the other hand, the night shift had to perform the test before the grid needed the power again, otherwise they would have all been fined or fired. Consequently, lead to an unnecessary pressure on the personnel, which in turn increased the probability of making incorrect

The earthquake made the nuclear leak, and the nuclear leak not only affected the human activities, but also affected the environment as well. The nuclear radiation affects the soil and the sea around the station. Many fish died and the sea was polluted.

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.