Three Mile Island Research Paper

Three Mile Island is situated on an island on the Susquehanna River. This is located by Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The accident at Three Mile Island is said to be one of the most momentous incidents in the history of the American nuclear power industry. The cause of the accident was due to many different variables. There were many human decisions made that led up to the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island Unit 2 reactor (britannica.com). There were also, however, some good decisions made prior to the accident. The “defense-in-depth” design prevented a superfluity of radioactive materials from being released. Several barriers protected the public from the exposure of radioactivity (ansnuclearcafe.org).
Sean was at 4th grade recess when he heard the whistle blow extremely early. He remembers thinking “That was not 15 minutes!” When they went inside his teachers did not go into detail, but he could still tell that they were worried. Later, when he went home, Sean’s mother was distraught. She could no longer hide her worry. Sean explained, “I can vividly remember my mom being very upset. When my dad eventually got home, she was talking about packing our bags and driving south. My dad told her that we should wait a little bit, and I’m glad we did.” (Potts, Personal Communication). Many families did not wait, trying to …show more content…
Sean’s mother took him to frequent doctor visits after the accident to make sure that he did not endure any long lasting effects from possible radiation exposure. Although Sean’s family was close to Three Mile Island, many independent studies proved that the average radiation dose was about “1 millirem about the usual background dose” (NRC). This means that the release of radiation would have insignificant effects on citizens health. However, since the events of Three Mile Island it has been reported that the effects were a lot worse than what the people were