Newspaper: The Evening Sentinel
Date: April 2, 1979
Title: N-plant Closed Last Year
Author: United Press International

PHILADELPHIA (UPI)-For 30 seconds last November the Three Mile Island II nuclear power plant lost all water pressure in its reactor’s cooling system, the Philadelphia Bulletin reported Saturday.

Quoting a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission report, the newspaper said when temperatures around the reactor climbed, turbines shut it down, avoiding the possibility of a nuclear accident
THAT NOV. 7 incident was the most serious at the plant until Wednesday’s accident.

The circumstances of the November incident and other complaints lodged against the facility are detailed in the NRC safety reports of the plant.

The reports also reveal that production problems led Metropolitan Edison Co., the plant’s operators, to shut down the nuclear reactor three times in January-the first month that the reactor began producing energy commercially.

THE NRC reports indicate that most complaints lodged against the plant by federal inspectors have involved violation and equipment maintenance regulations.

Eldon Bruner, chief of nuclear plant inspectors for the NRC’s Northeastern regional office in Valley Forge, said Wednesday’s accident marked the first time a U.S. nuclear energy plant had experienced both a loss of water surrounding its nuclear core and an escape of radioactivity.

The Three Mile Island site was built in 1972.