Three Mile Island

Three Mile Island and Middletown, PA - 1979

A Splendid Little Reactor

At 4 am on Wednesday, March 28, 1979, alarms rang in the Unit 2 control room at a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The world soon had a chance to see a nuclear accident in the making. The near catastrophe at the Three Mile Island power plant focused more attention on the problems of nuclear energy than any previous event. This accident, twelve miles from Harrisburg, came within 30 to 60 minutes of a meltdown. Since awareness about the dangers of nuclear reactors was increasing, it was not possible to hush up the event like in previous major accidents. The effects of the Three Mile Island incident and the subsequent concern over nuclear power, make it a concrete example of a disaster.

Map featuring local towns & cities and distance radiuses
The near-meltdown occurred due to failures in several areas. A primary cooling system cooled fuel in the reactor's core. This served to prevent overheating and a meltdown. A backup system cooled the primary system. Water in this back up system stopped flowing and thus stopped cooling the primary system. So consequently, the reactor became dangerously hot. Then there were problems with the emergency system. Instruments in the control room showed that the mechanism which closes an important valve had been activated. The operators had no way of knowing if the mechanism actually had closed the valve. The valve was not closed, and 250,000 gallons of radioactive water were pumped into a tank in an auxiliary building. This tank overflowed, and the water let off xenon and krypton gases. These toxic gases would have exploded the building. To prevent this, radioactive air was pumped into our atmosphere.

Local citizens in the Londonderry township lived with the nuclear plant as part of their everyday lives.

Cooling towers of stricken unit 2 reactor at TMI; 10 years bulding and $1 billion for five weeks of power.
Some effects from the Three Mile Island accident have been documented and others are still to come. Human infant deaths in the forms of miscarriages, stillbirths, and crib deaths soared for the period of April through September. Statistically, this is the time of year when infant deaths decrease in the United States. It is difficult to estimate the deaths that are occurring now and in the future due to radiation from the accident. In Poisoned Power, by Dr. Gofman and Dr. Tamplin, a mathematical equation is used to estimate the number of deaths caused by cancer from the radiation. Even using low estimates of the amount of radiation and hours of exposure, they come up with 333 deaths from cancer and leukemia. This is due to the large population in the area of the reactor. Farmers in the area started seeing symptoms in their cattle. They reported muscle and bone deficiencies never experienced before in the animals. Young steers could not stand up and dragged their hinds about. There were also increases in breeding problems and respiratory failures.

People were more concerned about the dangers of nuclear power plants after the Three Mile Island accident. Americans started investigating other sources of energy. Solar energy is still researched and sometimes even used today. Geo thermal energy and tidal energy are also considered as pollution-free sources of power. Perhaps most important is energy efficiency. In the United States, we waste about 45 percent of the energy we produce. If we built more energy efficient structures and used steam in industry, we could provide energy equivalent to 630 giant nuclear power plants. These methods of utilizing energy are feasible and pose far fewer threats (if any) than nuclear power plants.

Although the known deaths from the Three Mile Island accident are few, I still consider it a disaster. The near-meltdown was blamed on poor engineering and bad procedures. A valve failed to close. It was a small problem in a reactor that had only been running for five weeks, yet had the experience of more than 20 years of nuclear reactors behind it. Nuclear power is a viable, but dangerous energy source. Small mistakes can lead to big disasters with nuclear reactors. From this disaster and others, we have learned that we need tighter control of nuclear power and that alternate sources of energy must be researched and implemented.

Suggested Readings:

We All Live on Three Mile Island, Greg Adamson
Three Mile Island: 30 minutes to meltdown, Daniel Ford
The Warning: Accident at Three Mile Island, Mike Gray & Ira Rosen
Poisoned Power, John Goffman & Ronald Tamplin

Suggested Links:

Some of the nuclear waste is store here in Idaho. Click here to view the agreement concerning the removal of nuclear waste in Idaho.

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Boise State University

Three Mile Island and Middletown, PA - 1979	A Splendid Little Reactor
	At 4 am on Wednesday, March 28, 1979, alarms rang in the Unit 2 control room at a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The world soon had a chance to see a nuclear accident in the making. The near catastrophe at the Three Mile Island power plant focused more attention on the problems of nuclear energy than any previous event. This accident, twelve miles from Harrisburg, came within 30 to 60 minutes of a meltdown. Since awareness about the dangers of nuclear reactors was increasing, it was not possible to hush up the event like in previous major accidents. The effects of the Three Mile Island incident and the subsequent concern over nuclear power, make it a concrete example of a disaster.
Map featuring local towns & cities and distance radiuses	The near-meltdown occurred due to failures in several areas. A primary cooling system cooled fuel in the reactor's core. This served to prevent overheating and a meltdown. A backup system cooled the primary system. Water in this back up system stopped flowing and thus stopped cooling the primary system. So consequently, the reactor became dangerously hot. Then there were problems with the emergency system. Instruments in the control room showed that the mechanism which closes an important valve had been activated. The operators had no way of knowing if the mechanism actually had closed the valve. The valve was not closed, and 250,000 gallons of radioactive water were pumped into a tank in an auxiliary building. This tank overflowed, and the water let off xenon and krypton gases. These toxic gases would have exploded the building. To prevent this, radioactive air was pumped into our atmosphere.
Local citizens in the Londonderry township lived with the nuclear plant as part of their everyday lives. Cooling towers of stricken unit 2 reactor at TMI; 10 years bulding and $1 billion for five weeks of power.	Some effects from the Three Mile Island accident have been documented and others are still to come. Human infant deaths in the forms of miscarriages, stillbirths, and crib deaths soared for the period of April through September. Statistically, this is the time of year when infant deaths decrease in the United States. It is difficult to estimate the deaths that are occurring now and in the future due to radiation from the accident. In Poisoned Power, by Dr. Gofman and Dr. Tamplin, a mathematical equation is used to estimate the number of deaths caused by cancer from the radiation. Even using low estimates of the amount of radiation and hours of exposure, they come up with 333 deaths from cancer and leukemia. This is due to the large population in the area of the reactor. Farmers in the area started seeing symptoms in their cattle. They reported muscle and bone deficiencies never experienced before in the animals. Young steers could not stand up and dragged their hinds about. There were also increases in breeding problems and respiratory failures.
	People were more concerned about the dangers of nuclear power plants after the Three Mile Island accident. Americans started investigating other sources of energy. Solar energy is still researched and sometimes even used today. Geo thermal energy and tidal energy are also considered as pollution-free sources of power. Perhaps most important is energy efficiency. In the United States, we waste about 45 percent of the energy we produce. If we built more energy efficient structures and used steam in industry, we could provide energy equivalent to 630 giant nuclear power plants. These methods of utilizing energy are feasible and pose far fewer threats (if any) than nuclear power plants.
	Although the known deaths from the Three Mile Island accident are few, I still consider it a disaster. The near-meltdown was blamed on poor engineering and bad procedures. A valve failed to close. It was a small problem in a reactor that had only been running for five weeks, yet had the experience of more than 20 years of nuclear reactors behind it. Nuclear power is a viable, but dangerous energy source. Small mistakes can lead to big disasters with nuclear reactors. From this disaster and others, we have learned that we need tighter control of nuclear power and that alternate sources of energy must be researched and implemented.
Suggested Readings: We All Live on Three Mile Island, Greg Adamson Three Mile Island: 30 minutes to meltdown, Daniel Ford The Warning: Accident at Three Mile Island, Mike Gray & Ira Rosen Poisoned Power, John Goffman & Ronald Tamplin Suggested Links: Some of the nuclear waste is store here in Idaho. Click here to view the agreement concerning the removal of nuclear waste in Idaho.