Term Paper on "Meltdown at Three Mile Island"

Term Paper 7 pages (2038 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Mile Island Meltdown of 1979. The writer examines the events leading to and during the accident, and discusses President Jimmy Carter's role in the investigation that followed. There were five sources used to complete this paper.

Early in the morning on March 28, 1979 America's worst fears were realized when the nuclear plant in Pennsylvania had an accident that was later deemed a meltdown. Since that time the nuclear building program has been stopped in its tracks and people have remained fearful that it could happen again in one of the hundreds of nuclear power plants across America. The accident was quickly handled with no adverse health impact on the surrounding communities and the investigation that followed was intensive, however, what happened that day could easily happen anywhere, and the time has come to rethink where power plants are built in the future.

HISTORY

Before one can begin to understand the importance of examining future power plant construction one must have an understanding of the history of the accident.

Nuclear accidents are one of the nation's biggest fears. Movies are made that depict what might happen if a meltdown occurs, and few can forget the horror of Chernobyl when the accident occurred (Fact Sheet on the Accident at Three Mile Island (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html).

During the early morning hours of March 28, 1979 the most serious United States commercial accident in a nuclear power plant occurred at approximately 4:00 A.M.

Even though it led to no deaths or injuries to plant workers or members of the nearby community. But it brought about sweeping changes involving emergency response planning, reactor operator training, human factors engineering, radiation protection, and many other areas of nuclear power plant operations (Fact Sheet on the Accident at Three Mile Island http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html).."

During that fateful morning the workers were performing their regular duties and nothing appeared to be out of place at the power plant. The accident occurred in an area called the secondary non-nuclear section. It is interesting to note that it happened in what is referred to as a non-nuclear section of the plant as it became a meltdown, proving that there are many hazards to nuclear power plant operations.

Subsequent investigations proved out how the accident and consequential meltdown occurred. At about 4 a.m. In the morning the main pump that fed water to the area stopped working. It is not clear whether it was caused by an electrical failure or a mechanical failure but the pump came to a halt. This pump was responsible for feeding water to the key plant elements and providing the ability for the steam generators to remove heat (Fact Sheet on the Accident at Three Mile Island (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html)..

When it shut down and ceased to function the removal of heat was no longer possible.

First the turbine, then the reactor automatically shut down. Immediately, the pressure in the primary system (the nuclear portion of the plant) began to increase. In order to prevent that pressure from becoming excessive, the pilot-operated relief valve (a valve located at the top of the pressurizer) opened (Fact Sheet on the Accident at Three Mile Island http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html).."

In normal operations the valve is supposed to close as pressure decreases by a certain measurable amount but in this case the valve failed to close. That was the first problem that began leading to the meltdown. The second thing that happened is the signal that is supposed to alert workers that the valve did not close down did not work and nobody was alerted to the malfunction of the valve that did not close.

When this happened the cooling water began to pour out of the valve that was stuck in the open position which began to cause the core of the reactor to begin overheating.

As coolant flowed from the core through the pressurizer, the instruments available to reactor operators provided confusing information. There was no instrument that showed the level of coolant in the core. Instead, the operators judged the level of water in the core by the level in the pressurizer, and since it was high, they assumed that the core was properly covered with coolant (Fact Sheet on the Accident at Three Mile Island http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html)."

With mechanical and human error working together to produce the common mistaken conclusion nobody was working to reverse the situation and the reactor began to heat up even more.

As a result, as alarms rang and warning lights flashed, the operators did not realize that the plant was experiencing a loss-of-coolant accident. They took a series of actions that made conditions worse by simply reducing the flow of coolant through the core (Fact Sheet on the Accident at Three Mile Island (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html).."

The nuclear fuel depends on the adequate cooling through the use of the system and when this failed the fuel overheated so much that a process got underwat that caused the cladding to break open. The cladding is the long metal tubing that holds the nuclear pellets. If this melts down and the nuclear pellets are not properly contained it can cause serious and long-term adverse effects on residents for many miles around the plant.

Later investigation discovered that roughly one half of the cladding tubes were melted down during the initial moments of the accident. The investigation also determined that the accident was in fact the most serious type of core melt down that can occur in a nuclear power plant and one that could easily have put hundreds of miles of residents at risk had it not been discovered and stopped as quickly as it was.

Although the TMI-2 plant suffered a severe core meltdown, the most dangerous kind of nuclear power accident, it did not produce the worst-case consequences that reactor experts had long feared. In a worst-case accident, the melting of nuclear fuel would lead to a breach of the walls of the containment building and release massive quantities of radiation to the environment. But this did not occur as a result of the Three Mile Island accident (Fact Sheet on the Accident at Three Mile Island http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html).."

THE FALLOUT

When the accident occurred several things happened. The governor of Pennsylvania was faced with a huge decision. He could evacuate the immediate area as a precautionary measure, or he could wait and hope that things would be brought under control before the public was placed at risk. If he waited and there were later adverse reactions of the people he would be responsible for those issues, something that no one wants on their conscious. If he began an immediate evacuation he might trigger a mass public panic with millions of people rushing to get out of the area and that panic may cause more problems and deaths that waiting it out would cause. It was a decision that he wrestled with before making the eventual call to evacuate pregnant women and close the schools.

While the reactor was controlled and shut down by the evening of March 28 there were concerns about the fact that radiation had in fact leaked out into the atmosphere and was being dispersed across the surrounding residential and commercial neighborhoods.

A significant release of radiation from the plant's auxiliary building, performed to relieve pressure on the primary system and avoid curtailing the flow of coolant to the core, caused a great deal of confusion and consternation. In an atmosphere of growing uncertainty about the condition of the plant, the governor of Pennsylvania, Richard L. Thornburgh, consulted with the NRC about evacuating the population near the plant (Fact Sheet on the Accident at Three Mile Island (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html).."

With the experts advising him on the potential dangers of not evacuating as well as the possibility of mass panic by evacuating he made the difficult decision to begin evacuation of those who would be at most risk by exposure to radiation. The obvious population that was at risk was pregnant women. Preschool age children were also deemed to be at a higher risk to from the exposure. The decision was made to mark a five mile radius from the power plant and announce that those who were pregnant or preschool age living in that area needed to evacuate immediately.

This sparked a near panic for several thousand people who began throwing a few items into a bag and clogging the roads trying ting to get out of the area as quickly as they could.

While this was going on it was discovered that there was a hydrogen bubble in the dome of the pressure vessel. This created fresh concerns because if it exploded it might cause the containment wall to fall in and release extremely dangerous amounts of radiation into the air.

INVESTIGATION

Five days after the accident President Jimmy Carter and his wife visited the power plant and posed for pictures as a way to alleviate the public concern that there would be long-term effects from what had happened. The president ordered a complete investigation into the… READ MORE

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