Meltdown

The worst commercial nuclear accident in the US took place on March 28th, 1979 at Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  The station was comprised of two units, TMI-1 and TMI-2, owned and operated by Metropolitan Edison and General Public Utilities Corporation.  Both units were designed by Babcock and Wilcox, a US company that had been in the business of power generation for a century.  Construction for TMI-1 began in 1968 and was completed in 1970.  It went online in 1974.  TMI-2, however, had a more troubled existence.  Construction started in 1969 but was not completed until 1978, with Number 2 going online in December of that year.  It was only in operation for 90 days before the accident.

A malfunction of the cooling system of TMI-2 caused a partial meltdown of the reactor core.  This resulted in what the Nuclear Regulatory Commission called a "significant release of radiation" the following day.  By March 30, the governor and the head of the NRC advised pregnant women and small children in the area to evacuate.  Jimmy Carter famously visited the facility on April 1.

In the end, while the amount of radiation was indeed significant, the government estimated the average amount of radiation received by area residents was equivalent to a "chest x-ray".  Others have indicated it was equivalent to receiving half a year's normal "background radiation" in one shot.  Although there were no specific fatalities, there were reports of increased infant death downwind from TMI, as well as reduced fertility in animals.  The BBC reported in 2002 that there was no exceptional rise in cancer deaths in the area in the intervening years.

TMI-2 was brought under control within 10 days, after which it was permanently closed.  The cleanup, at a cost of a billion dollars, wasn't completed until 1993.  Fun fact: TMI-2 is currently owned and maintained by First Energy of Akron.  TMI-1 came back online in 1985.  Except for a quickly contained leak in November 2009 which kept it offline for two months, it has been in operation ever since.  In fact, its license was renewed in September of 2009, keeping it active until 2034.

It's often thought Three Mile Island was the death knell of the nuclear power industry.  It certainly had an impact on public perception.  According to the NY Times, support for nuclear power was at an all time high in 1977 at 69%, but fell to 46% after the accident.   In reality, for a number of reasons development for future plants was already going down.  No new plants had been approved since the accident, although some were built that were already scheduled for construction.  That said, the first new plant plant to be designed since the accident was recently approved for construction.

Coincidentally, the accident took place two weeks after the release of The China Syndrome, the story of a news crew at a nuclear plant during a meltdown.  All of this produced one of SNL's finest moments, "The Pepsi Syndrome", broadcast just 10 days after the accident on April 7th. It's also one of the longest, at 14 minutes, but do yourself a favor and check it out.  Stay tuned for a special guest as well as a future senator.


Pepsi Syndrome from Lou Jacob on Vimeo.