Baylee - Three Mile Island
The Three Mile Island accident occurred on March 28, 1979. This was the place of a nuclear power plant in central Pennsylvania. This was the state with the second highest nuclear power production behind Illinois. A background on the power plant is almost necessary to understand the total effect on the nuclear tragedy that occurred. The plant was built in 1968, during the period of time called the golden age of nuclear power. During this time period the infrastructure started to improve dramatically and was in search of a more effective and longer lasting source in energy. The plant was built into different units, Unit one being completed in the the year of 1974. Unit 2 of the nuclear plant was completed in …show more content…
TMI-1 was a pressurized water reactor. It would pull water from the river the plant was stationed on to replace the water that had left the tower due to evaporation at the top of the tower. When the accident happened in the TMI-2 tower TMI-1 just so happened to be offline for refueling. TMI-2 was also a pressurized water reactor like TMI-1, but the amount that it could hold was bigger than that of the first. After that being said, March 28, 1979 the cooling system in TMI-2 had a malfunction that started a partial core meltdown. You might ask what happens in a nuclear meltdown? Well due to the lack of water the fuel rods that help to control the reaction literally begin to melt causing the reaction to start and emit dangerous radiation to the environment. In this case it was a partial meltdown this being stated the control rods began to slump. Since they weren’t checked on quick enough the slumping rods began to melt ; therefore intionating the reaction. On the international nuclear event scale this was given a 5 out of 7. After the accident occurred nuclear construction was stopped for almost thirty years in America. This being done we lost our competitive edge in the nuclear power industry. The
The Three Mile Island accident occurred on March 28, 1979. This was the place of a nuclear power plant in central Pennsylvania. This was the state with the second highest nuclear power production behind Illinois. A background on the power plant is almost necessary to understand the total effect on the nuclear tragedy that occurred. The plant was built in 1968, during the period of time called the golden age of nuclear power. During this time period the infrastructure started to improve dramatically and was in search of a more effective and longer lasting source in energy. The plant was built into different units, Unit one being completed in the the year of 1974. Unit 2 of the nuclear plant was completed in …show more content…
TMI-1 was a pressurized water reactor. It would pull water from the river the plant was stationed on to replace the water that had left the tower due to evaporation at the top of the tower. When the accident happened in the TMI-2 tower TMI-1 just so happened to be offline for refueling. TMI-2 was also a pressurized water reactor like TMI-1, but the amount that it could hold was bigger than that of the first. After that being said, March 28, 1979 the cooling system in TMI-2 had a malfunction that started a partial core meltdown. You might ask what happens in a nuclear meltdown? Well due to the lack of water the fuel rods that help to control the reaction literally begin to melt causing the reaction to start and emit dangerous radiation to the environment. In this case it was a partial meltdown this being stated the control rods began to slump. Since they weren’t checked on quick enough the slumping rods began to melt ; therefore intionating the reaction. On the international nuclear event scale this was given a 5 out of 7. After the accident occurred nuclear construction was stopped for almost thirty years in America. This being done we lost our competitive edge in the nuclear power industry. The