Three Mile Island
Facts for kids
The following fact
sheet contains interesting facts and information on the Three Mile Island
accident.
Three Mile Island
Facts for kids
Three Mile Island
Facts - 1:
The Three Mile Island accident began at 4.37 a.m. on
Wednesday, March 28, 1979 and involved a partial nuclear
meltdown in reactor number 2 of the Three Mile Island
Nuclear Generating Station.
Three Mile
Island Facts - 2:
The cause of the Three Mile Island accident was a
'loss-of-coolant' accident due to a mechanical or
electrical failure that prevented the main feedwater
pumps from sending water to the steam generators that
remove heat from the reactor core.
Three Mile
Island Facts - 3:
Without the proper water flow, the nuclear fuel
overheated and about half of the core melted during the
early stages of the accident.
Three Mile
Island Facts - 4: During the
accident part of the nuclear core was damaged, radiation
was released, and thousands of residents were evacuated
from the area.
Three Mile
Island Facts - 5:
The Three Mile Island accident, a nuclear core meltdown,
was due to a combination of human error, design
deficiencies, and component failures.
Three Mile
Island Facts - 6: The Three Mile Island Nuclear
Generating Station began operations in 1974, located on
Three Mile Island in the Susquehanna River, south of
Harrisburg, in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.
Three Mile Island
Facts -
7: The Three Mile
Island nuclear power plant was built by General Public
Utilities Corporation (GPU) and operated by Metropolitan
Edison Company (Met-Ed), a subsidiary of the GPU Energy
division. Its operating license was issued on February
8, 1978.
Three Mile
Island Facts - 8: Three Mile Island Nuclear
Generating Station (TMI) has two separate units, referred to as
TMI-1 and TMI-2. Following the accident the reactor core of TMI-2
was removed from the site, but the site has not been decommissioned.
Three Mile Island
Facts -
9: The Atomic Energy
Act of 1954 provided for both the development and the
regulation of the uses of nuclear materials and
facilities in the United States. The Energy
Reorganization Act of 1974 replaced the Atomic Energy
Act of 1954 and created the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC).
Three Mile
Island Facts - 10: Three Mile Island
is so named because its location is three miles
downriver from Middletown, a borough in Dauphin County,
Pennsylvania.
Three Mile Island
Facts -
11: Dauphin County,
Pennsylvania covers a total of 558 sq mi (1,445 km2).
Cities within 25 miles of the Three Mile Island Nuclear
Generating Station include Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's
state capital (12 miles to the city center), York (13
miles to the city center), and Lancaster (24 miles to
the city center).
Three Mile Island
Facts - 12: In 1974 the population within
a 25-mile radius of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant was
over 663,500 people.
Continued...
Three Mile Island
Facts for kids
Facts
about the Three Mile Island for kids
The following fact
sheet continues with facts about the Three Mile Island accident.
Three Mile Island
Facts for kids
Three Mile Island
Facts - 13:
The events leading up to the Three Mile Island accident
began at 4.37 a.m. on March 28, 1979 when a minor malfunction in the
non-nuclear part of TMI-2 occured triggering a series of automated
responses to relieve pressure in the nuclear reactor's coolant
system.
Three Mile Island
Facts - 14: The relief valve failed to
automatically close when the pressure dropped and operators in the
Control room misread the situation and mistakenly believed that
coolant was being pumped into the system.
Three Mile Island
Facts - 15: An automated
emergency cooling system turned off and the relief valve
remained open for over two hours as vital reactor
coolant leaked out. There was no instrument to show how
much water covered the nuclear core.
Three Mile Island
Facts - 16: High radiation
levels began to register in several areas of the plant
as nearly two-thirds of the 12-foot-high nuclear core
stood uncovered with coolant. A partial meltdown of the
fuel bundles occurred.
Three Mile Island
Facts - 17: As warning lights
flashed and alarm bells rang the operators did not
realize that the nuclear plant was experiencing a
loss-of-coolant accident. TMI-2 suffered a severe core
meltdown, the most dangerous kind of nuclear power
accident.
Three Mile Island
Facts - 18: Just before 7 a.m.
a site emergency was declared, a procedural
requirement when an event occurred which threatened "an
uncontrolled release of radioactivity to the immediate
environment."
Three Mile Island
Facts - 19: State and local
authorities and the state police and nearby counties
were alerted. A general emergency was then declared and
news of the Three Mile Island accident began to be
broadcasted on the radio and T.V.
Three Mile Island
Facts -
20: At about midday
the U.S. Department of Energy began its first helicopter
flight to monitor radiation levels but thankfully the
consequences outside the nuclear power plant were
minimal, but this was unknown at the time. Fears
escalated and people began to make a hasty departure of
their homes.
Three Mile Island
Facts -
21: Unlike the
Chernobyl disaster that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine, the TMI-2
containment building remained intact, containing almost
all of the accident’s radioactive material.
Three Mile Island
Facts -
22: At about 11.00am
Governor Thornburgh received a telephone call from
President Carter, who assured him that expert Harold
Denton would be sent to assess the situation. President
Carter also promised that a special communications
system would be set up to link Three Mile Island nuclear
power plant, the Governor's office, the White House, and
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Three Mile Island
Facts -
23: NRC chairman
Joseph Hendrie advised the Governor of Pennsylvania,
Richard "Dick" Thornburgh, on the evacuation "of
pregnant women and pre-school age children...within a
five-mile radius of the Three Mile Island facility."
Three Mile Island
Facts -
24: On Friday March
30, 1979 the evacuation zone was extended to a 20-mile
radius on Friday March 30. Within days, 140,000 people
had left the area.
Three Mile Island
Facts -
25: The great concern
about a potential hydrogen explosion inside the TMI-2
reactor was raised on Saturday, March 31, 1979 and
government offices were inundated with telephone calls
from concerned and confused citizens. Residents in the
area were told to stay indoors with windows closed and
ventilating systems off.
Three Mile Island
Facts -
26: President Carter
announced his plans to visit Three Mile Island the
following day. On April 1 President Carter toured Three
Mile Island and addressed residents in the Middletown
community building.
Three Mile Island
Facts -
27: On April 3 Denton
announced that the hydrogen bubble had been eliminated
and on April 4 Governor Thornburgh, appeared on the NBC
"Today" show and announced that the "threat of any
immediate catastrophe is over." The small radioactive
releases from the accident had no detectable health
effects on plant workers or the public
Three Mile Island
Facts -
28: More than a
million gallons of radioactive water remained inside the
containment building and a massive decontamination
clean-up program began. The accident's radioactive waste
was shipped off-site to an appropriate disposal area.
Three Mile Island
Facts -
29: The President's
Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, created
by Jimmy Carter in April 1979 mounting investigations
into the crisis.
Three Mile Island Facts - 30:
In the months
following the Three Mile Island accident, although
questions were raised about possible adverse effects
from radiation on human, animal, and plant life in the
Three Mile Island area, none could be directly
correlated to the accident. The TMI-2 reactor was
permanently shut down and all its fuel was removed. The
reactor coolant system was fully drained and the
radioactive water decontaminated and evaporated.
Three Mile Island
Facts -
31: Today, the TMI-2
reactor is kept in monitored storage until the operating
license for the TMI-1 plant expires in 2034, at which
time both plants will be decommissioned.
Three Mile Island
Facts for kids
Three Mile Island - President Jimmy Carter Video
The article on the Three Mile Island
accident provides detailed facts and a summary of one of the important events during his presidential term in office. The following
Jimmy Carter video will
give you additional important facts and dates about the political events experienced by the 39th American President whose presidency spanned from January 20, 1977 to January 20, 1981.
Three Mile Island
●
Interesting Facts about Three Mile Island for kids and schools
●
Summary of the Three Mile Island in US history
●
Facts about the Three Mile Island
●
Jimmy Carter from January 20, 1977 to January 20, 1981
●
Fast, fun, Three Mile Island
about major events in his presidency
●
Foreign & Domestic
policies of President Jimmy Carter
● Jimmy Carter Presidency and
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