Three Mile Island Failure

Three Mile Island It was the late 1970’s and nuclear energy was on the rise. The first full scale nuclear power plant built in the United States in 1958 was Shippingport, Pennsylvania. After the first power plant was built, there was an exponential increase in the amount of power plants being built, until March 28th, 1979 that is (CITATION). The Three Mile Island accident happened on that early spring morning. Three Mile Island accident was a series of failures that led to investigations and important changes in the nuclear industry. It all started on March 28th, 1979 at 4:00 when a feed pump stopped operating, which led to the turbine-generator to automatically shut down just as it is supposed to. The feed pump sends water to the steam …show more content…
The cleanup took 14 years to complete and finally ended in 1993. In a New York Times article written back in 1993, “The first major phase of cleanup was completed in April 1990, when workers finished shipping 150 tons of radioactive wreckage from the damaged reactor vessel to Idaho for storage at the Department of Energy’s National Engineering Laboratory (CITATION). The 2.23 million gallons of contaminated water were evaporated using an electric evaporator, which evaporated water at periodic intervals. The evaporator turned the water into radioactive steam, which carried tritium, which is a radioactive form of hydrogen. The total cost of the cleanup was about $1 Billion. The cleanup expelled all of the radiation that could be reached; however, there is still a contamination in the reactor building, but it is contained by the walls. As for the health affects of the accident, “The TMI 2 accident caused no injuries, and at least a dozen epidemiological studies conducted since 1981 have found no discernible direct health effects to the population in the vicinity of the plant (CITATION). Even though radioactive steam was released into the atmosphere, only 1 millirem of radiation dose above the normal dose was exposed to those 2 million people who surrounded the plant. To put this into context, “Exposure from a chest X-ray is about 6 millirem and the area’s natural radioactive …show more content…
A couple weeks after the accident President Carter put together a commission of 12 members called the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island. They concluded the workers were not at fault because they were following their training. The reason this accident played out was the improper training of the power plant workers, specifically, their emergency procedures. The commission formed the INPO, which promotes the safe and reliable operation of nuclear power plants (CITATION). “The commission’s report on its investigation, issued in October 1979, recommended that the industry develop its own standards of excellence. The commission also cited a need for agency-accredited training institutions for nuclear plant operators and immediate supervisors of operations” (CITATION). The impact on the nuclear industry was profound. In general, the attitudes of citizens in the United States and around the world shifted in regards to nuclear energy. There were more protests against nuclear power. According to the IAEA, “In 1979, the total capacity of nuclear power plants on order worldwide actually decreased by about 8000 MW(e); eight new plants were ordered but 14 previous orders were cancelled, and in subsequent years, US utilities continued to cancel orders they had already placed” (CITATION). From 1980-1984 a total of 51 nuclear power