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https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/2352254001
MIDDLETOWN, PA – Even 40 years later, John Garver vividly remembers the metallic taste of the nation's worst commercial nuclear disaster.
An acrid odor permeated Harrisburg as he walked out of a restaurant in Pennsylvania's capital city the morning of March 28, 1979.
"We had this smell in the air, wondering what it was," recalled Garver, 80, now a retired salesman. "Well it didn't take us long to find out ... that the accident started."
Some 14 miles away, the "accident" was unfolding in Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant, triggering panic, confusion and, within days, an evacuation order.
The partial meltdown sparked national protests, prompted increased safety standards for the nuclear power industry, and largely stymied the industry's momentum for decades until recent alarm over climate change has made some begin to embrace expanding carbon-free nuclear power.
At noon on Friday, the remaining reactor (Unit 1) will generate its last kilowatt of energy and close, a victim not of the anti-nuclear movement but rather of simple economics. Even though the plant is licensed to operate until 2034, Exelon Generation is ceasing operations after the state of Pennsylvania earlier this year refused to throw the company a financial lifeline that would have kept it open.
The plant's four cooling towers will remain part of the landscape for now, foreboding concrete tombstones that seem out of place in the bucolic Susquehanna Valley of central Pennsylvania.
While it may not produce power, Three Mile Island (TMI) will continue to generate memories, said local historian Erik Fasick.
“It shouldn't be forgotten," he said, the towers looming over his shoulder as he stood outside the plant's grounds along Route 441. "It's the most important event that’s occurred in this area since the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.”
Nuclear energy comeback
The closure of Three Mile Island comes as nuclear power is getting a second look thanks to the devastating impact of climate change.
Nuclear is the largest single supplier of carbon-free energy in the nation, providing about 20% of U.S. energy. With environmental groups and Democratic lawmakers calling for ambitious deadlines to wean the country off fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases, advocates say nuclear power is emerging as a necessary ingredient of any response plan.
Some Democratic presidential candidates have touted the benefits of "next-generation" nuclear power – or at least said it's worthy of consideration – as they push for alternatives to coal, oil and gas.
"Right now, nuclear is more than 50% of our non-carbon causing energy," Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., told a CNN town hall on climate change earlier this month. "So people who think we can get there without nuclear being part of the blend just aren't looking at the facts."
But economic factors, mainly from the production of cheap natural gas and increasingly affordable renewable sources, are slowly driving nuclear power out of business. In addition, diminished demand has hurt profitability, as have rising costs to operate them, analysts say.
TMI's shuttering means there will be 97 commercial reactors at 59 plants scattered across 30 states.
Only one new nuclear power plant has come online in the United States since 2010: The Watts Bar Unit 2 in Tennessee, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Two more reactors are under construction in Georgia, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Divided Democrats: Nuclear power finds odd bedfellow in 2020 Dems as voters look for climate change solutions
But six reactors at five plants have been mothballed since 2013, and several others are slated to close in the next few years if they do not receive new financial support, according to a report last year from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
A number of plants that were already in the pipeline prior to TMI's accident received licenses to operate after 1979. But plans for 39 others were canceled in the wake of the catastrophe, according to NRC documents.
Public confidence in nuclear energy, particularly in (the) USA, declined sharply following the Three Mile Island accident," according to the World Nuclear Association, a pro-industry group. "It was a major cause of the decline in nuclear construction through the 1980s and 1990s."
Eric Epstein, a Harrisburg resident who chairs the Three Mile Island Alert organization that has long called for the shutdown of the facility, agreed that the accident set the industry back decades.
"If there is a good thing that happened because of TMI, it’s that it has ignited a fierce debate on the viability of nuclear power being safe, reliable, economical," he said.
The accident
Construction of the plant along the Susquehanna River near Middletown began in 1968 with the first reactor going on line six years later. Unit 2 came on line in December 1978, less than three months before its accident. Both were operated at the time by Metropolitan Edison. (Exelon, the current owner, didn't take over TMI until 2000).
At around 4 a.m. on Wednesday March 28, 1979, a mechanical or electrical failure prevented two pumps from sending water to steam generators, which cool the nuclear reactor with circulating water. A chain of events, punctuated by a stuck valve at the top of the pressurizer that was not detected, led confused operators to take steps that exposed the core leading to a partial meltdown.
A chemical reaction formed a bubble of hydrogen gas inside the reactor. Operators reduce the bubble’s size through periodic venting to the atmosphere through April 1. The plant entered a “cold shutdown” on April 27.
Over the next several days, there were conflicting messages about the severity of the crisis and how much radiation had been released.
Geiger counters to detect and measure ionizing radiation became commonplace. Children and pregnant women were encouraged to evacuate the area, first within a five-mile radius of TMI, then within 20 miles. An estimated 140,000 residents left as well, hoping to outrun the radiation threat. President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn visited Middletown the Sunday after the accident in a bid to calm anxious residents and a worried nation.
Fueling those fears was the release 12 days earlier of "The China Syndrome," a Hollywood thriller starring Jane Fonda about an accident at a nuclear power plant that was eerily similar to the scenario that unfolded at Three Mile Island, named because it sits three miles downriver from the center of Middletown.
In the movie, Fonda who plays a TV reporter is told that an explosion at the fictional plant located in Southern California “could render an area the size of the state of Pennsylvania permanently uninhabitable."
"I knew that line was coming ... Everybody knew it was coming," recalled Fasick, who as a seven-year-old accompanied his parents to watch the movie at a local theater a week after the accident. "When it was said, there was still that audible gasp. You could hear it."
The shuttered power plant became a popular stop for "dark tourism," the name given to infamous sites associated with death or tragedy that draw the morbidly curious.
Unit 2, a structure built to withstand an airplane crash, never reopened thanks to the malfunction of a tiny valve. Unit 1 returned to service in October 1985 under new management (GPU Nuclear Corporation) following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to block the restarting.
The accident forced drastic changes in nuclear power plant operations and safety measures. More stringent training procedures were adopted. Plants were upgraded to be more secure. Communication protocols between plant operators and area governments improved. More comprehensive warning and preparation regimens were adopted. Evacuation plans grew more sophisticated.
There has been no major problem at a U.S. nuclear plant since Three Mile Island.
'I'm not going to leave'
Founded in 1755 about 50 miles north of Baltimore, Middletown is a central Pennsylvania hamlet steeped in history.
.....
MIDDLETOWN, PA – Even 40 years later, John Garver vividly remembers the metallic taste of the nation's worst commercial nuclear disaster.
An acrid odor permeated Harrisburg as he walked out of a restaurant in Pennsylvania's capital city the morning of March 28, 1979.
"We had this smell in the air, wondering what it was," recalled Garver, 80, now a retired salesman. "Well it didn't take us long to find out ... that the accident started."
Some 14 miles away, the "accident" was unfolding in Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant, triggering panic, confusion and, within days, an evacuation order.
The partial meltdown sparked national protests, prompted increased safety standards for the nuclear power industry, and largely stymied the industry's momentum for decades until recent alarm over climate change has made some begin to embrace expanding carbon-free nuclear power.
At noon on Friday, the remaining reactor (Unit 1) will generate its last kilowatt of energy and close, a victim not of the anti-nuclear movement but rather of simple economics. Even though the plant is licensed to operate until 2034, Exelon Generation is ceasing operations after the state of Pennsylvania earlier this year refused to throw the company a financial lifeline that would have kept it open.
The plant's four cooling towers will remain part of the landscape for now, foreboding concrete tombstones that seem out of place in the bucolic Susquehanna Valley of central Pennsylvania.
While it may not produce power, Three Mile Island (TMI) will continue to generate memories, said local historian Erik Fasick.
“It shouldn't be forgotten," he said, the towers looming over his shoulder as he stood outside the plant's grounds along Route 441. "It's the most important event that’s occurred in this area since the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.”
Nuclear energy comeback
The closure of Three Mile Island comes as nuclear power is getting a second look thanks to the devastating impact of climate change.
Nuclear is the largest single supplier of carbon-free energy in the nation, providing about 20% of U.S. energy. With environmental groups and Democratic lawmakers calling for ambitious deadlines to wean the country off fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases, advocates say nuclear power is emerging as a necessary ingredient of any response plan.
Some Democratic presidential candidates have touted the benefits of "next-generation" nuclear power – or at least said it's worthy of consideration – as they push for alternatives to coal, oil and gas.
"Right now, nuclear is more than 50% of our non-carbon causing energy," Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., told a CNN town hall on climate change earlier this month. "So people who think we can get there without nuclear being part of the blend just aren't looking at the facts."
But economic factors, mainly from the production of cheap natural gas and increasingly affordable renewable sources, are slowly driving nuclear power out of business. In addition, diminished demand has hurt profitability, as have rising costs to operate them, analysts say.
TMI's shuttering means there will be 97 commercial reactors at 59 plants scattered across 30 states.
Only one new nuclear power plant has come online in the United States since 2010: The Watts Bar Unit 2 in Tennessee, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Two more reactors are under construction in Georgia, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Divided Democrats: Nuclear power finds odd bedfellow in 2020 Dems as voters look for climate change solutions
But six reactors at five plants have been mothballed since 2013, and several others are slated to close in the next few years if they do not receive new financial support, according to a report last year from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
A number of plants that were already in the pipeline prior to TMI's accident received licenses to operate after 1979. But plans for 39 others were canceled in the wake of the catastrophe, according to NRC documents.
Public confidence in nuclear energy, particularly in (the) USA, declined sharply following the Three Mile Island accident," according to the World Nuclear Association, a pro-industry group. "It was a major cause of the decline in nuclear construction through the 1980s and 1990s."
Eric Epstein, a Harrisburg resident who chairs the Three Mile Island Alert organization that has long called for the shutdown of the facility, agreed that the accident set the industry back decades.
"If there is a good thing that happened because of TMI, it’s that it has ignited a fierce debate on the viability of nuclear power being safe, reliable, economical," he said.
The accident
Construction of the plant along the Susquehanna River near Middletown began in 1968 with the first reactor going on line six years later. Unit 2 came on line in December 1978, less than three months before its accident. Both were operated at the time by Metropolitan Edison. (Exelon, the current owner, didn't take over TMI until 2000).
At around 4 a.m. on Wednesday March 28, 1979, a mechanical or electrical failure prevented two pumps from sending water to steam generators, which cool the nuclear reactor with circulating water. A chain of events, punctuated by a stuck valve at the top of the pressurizer that was not detected, led confused operators to take steps that exposed the core leading to a partial meltdown.
A chemical reaction formed a bubble of hydrogen gas inside the reactor. Operators reduce the bubble’s size through periodic venting to the atmosphere through April 1. The plant entered a “cold shutdown” on April 27.
Over the next several days, there were conflicting messages about the severity of the crisis and how much radiation had been released.
Geiger counters to detect and measure ionizing radiation became commonplace. Children and pregnant women were encouraged to evacuate the area, first within a five-mile radius of TMI, then within 20 miles. An estimated 140,000 residents left as well, hoping to outrun the radiation threat. President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn visited Middletown the Sunday after the accident in a bid to calm anxious residents and a worried nation.
Fueling those fears was the release 12 days earlier of "The China Syndrome," a Hollywood thriller starring Jane Fonda about an accident at a nuclear power plant that was eerily similar to the scenario that unfolded at Three Mile Island, named because it sits three miles downriver from the center of Middletown.
In the movie, Fonda who plays a TV reporter is told that an explosion at the fictional plant located in Southern California “could render an area the size of the state of Pennsylvania permanently uninhabitable."
"I knew that line was coming ... Everybody knew it was coming," recalled Fasick, who as a seven-year-old accompanied his parents to watch the movie at a local theater a week after the accident. "When it was said, there was still that audible gasp. You could hear it."
The shuttered power plant became a popular stop for "dark tourism," the name given to infamous sites associated with death or tragedy that draw the morbidly curious.
Unit 2, a structure built to withstand an airplane crash, never reopened thanks to the malfunction of a tiny valve. Unit 1 returned to service in October 1985 under new management (GPU Nuclear Corporation) following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to block the restarting.
The accident forced drastic changes in nuclear power plant operations and safety measures. More stringent training procedures were adopted. Plants were upgraded to be more secure. Communication protocols between plant operators and area governments improved. More comprehensive warning and preparation regimens were adopted. Evacuation plans grew more sophisticated.
There has been no major problem at a U.S. nuclear plant since Three Mile Island.
'I'm not going to leave'
Founded in 1755 about 50 miles north of Baltimore, Middletown is a central Pennsylvania hamlet steeped in history.
.....
