Three Mile Island

Three Mile IslandBy, Zane Petosa

What Happened?• The incident at Three Mile Island began

at around four a.m. on March 28, 1979.• This event was caused due to a

combination of equipment malfunctions, design-related problems and worker errors.

• Basically, there were mechanical errors that caused the turbine and reactor to shut down. This caused a buildup of pressure in the power plant as well as the reactor to over heat.

Contaminants

• There were coolants involved. In addition, it was later found that about one-half of the core melted during the early stages of the accident.

• There was also a pretty significant amount of radiation released during this accident.

Consequences / Reaction

• It is estimated that the average dose of radiation was about 1 millirem to around two million people in the area.

• The incident caused public fear and distrust to increase. However, the NRC made sure it responded to the accident as well. They tightened their grip on nuclear power plants and revise some of their policies in order to increase reliability.

Works Cited• http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collectio

ns/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html• http://nuclear-powerplants.blogspot.com/201

1/03/three-mile-island-nuclear-accident.html• All images from Google Images