Happy 30th Birthday, Three Mile Island Incident.

[Syt]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident

The Three Mile Island accident of 1979 was a partial core meltdown in Unit 2 (a pressurized water reactor manufactured by Babcock & Wilcox) of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg. It was the most significant accident in the history of the American commercial nuclear power generating industry, resulting in the release of an estimated 43,000 curies (1.59 PBq) of radioactive krypton,[1] but less than 20 curies (740 GBq) of the particularly hazardous iodine-131.[2]

The accident began at 4 a.m on Wednesday, March 28, 1979, with failures in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck-open pilot-operated relief valve (PORV) in the primary system, which allowed large amounts of reactor coolant to escape. The mechanical failures were compounded by the initial failure of plant operators to recognize the situation as a loss of coolant accident due to inadequate training and ambiguous control room indicators. The scope and complexity of the accident became clear over the course of five days, as employees of Metropolitan Edison (Met Ed, the utility operating the plant), Pennsylvania state officials, and members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) tried to understand the problem, communicate the situation to the press and local community, decide whether the accident required an emergency evacuation, and ultimately end the crisis.

In the end, the reactor was brought under control, although full details of the accident were not discovered until much later, following extensive investigations by both a presidential commission and the NRC. The "Kemeny Commission Report" concluded that "there will either be no case of cancer or the number of cases will be so small that it will never be possible to detect them. The same conclusion applies to the other possible health effects."[3] Several epidemiological studies in the years since the accident have supported the conclusion that radiation releases from the accident had no perceptible effect on cancer incidence in residents near the plant, though these findings have been contested by one team of researchers.[4]

Public reaction to the event was probably influenced by at least three factors: first, the release (12 days before the accident) of a popular movie called The China Syndrome, concerning an accident at a nuclear reactor;[5] secondly, what were felt to be confusing and conflicting communications from officials during the initial phases of the accident;[6] and lastly, many of the statements made by political and social activists long opposed to nuclear power.[citation needed] The accident was followed by essentially a complete cessation of the start of new nuclear plant construction in the US.

Well, it went better than Chernobyl. According to a clock ticking in one of of Vienna's subway passages (they have all kinds of clocks, timers, counters along the walls in that station) it'll be only 140,000+ days  till it becomes inhabitable again.

[Cecil]

I watched an interesting tv show about the animal life inside the contaminated area in Chernobyl. Seems it has made quite the comeback.

[Caliga]

lol, the college my parents went to is like ten minutes from TMI.

In fact, they have friends from college who we used to go visit sometimes.  You can actually see the cooling towers from their house.  One of them is like permanently off due to the accident.  Alot of people around there are convinced  the accident did have an impact on cancer rates, especially in little kids.

[Strix]

Woohoo! The accident along with the movie that set back nuclear power in the US. It would be interesting to see how different the world we live in would have turned out if not for this accident i.e. as far as dependency on oil.

[Caliga]

uhhh.... like we'd have nuclear powered cars now?

I'm guessing we'd have consumed less coal by now, though.

[Strix]

uhhh.... like we'd have nuclear powered cars now?

I'm guessing we'd have consumed less coal by now, though.

Since don't have coal powered car either I believe that electric cars would have been produced earlier.

[The Brain]

I saw TMI from the air once. I think.

[Neil]

I watched an interesting tv show about the animal life inside the contaminated area in Chernobyl. Seems it has made quite the comeback.

Humans are far more dangerous to animals than radiation.

[FunkMonk]

I watched an interesting tv show about the animal life inside the contaminated area in Chernobyl. Seems it has made quite the comeback.

Life... finds a way.

[jimmy olsen]

I watched an interesting tv show about the animal life inside the contaminated area in Chernobyl. Seems it has made quite the comeback.

Life... finds a way.

Clever girl