Category: Text (Page 17 of 33)

Newspaper: The Sentinel
Date: April.9, 1979
Article: Thornburgh questions nuclear power
Author: Scott Macleod

HARRISBURG – Gov. Dick Thornburgh, a supporter of nuclear energy during his campaign for the governorship last year, says in the aftermath of Three Mile Island he is skeptical of nuclear power because of safety risks.

During his 1978 gubernatorial campaign, Thornburgh said he supported development of the nuclear industry providing safeguards could be assured.

Thornburgh said he had doubts about a reopening of the Three Mile Island facility, owned mostly by Metropolitan Edison Co. “I want to know if its safe,” he said.

The governor, who was in office only 72 days when the accident occurred March 28, indicated he believed he does not – and never has had – intractable views bout the safety of nuclear power.

“I can’t carry out my responsibilities to govern this state if there is an uneasiness in my mind or the public’s mind about the safety of any kind of facility,” said Thornburgh, who appeared weary from the strain of events.
Here are some answers Thornburgh gave during the interview:

Why Thornburgh advised pregnant women and little children to leave the five-mile radius of Three Mile Island:

“The facts as presented by Harold Denton (the U.S. Nuclear Regulator Commission’s No.1 man on the scene) and by relevant environmental and health people indicated that they have not completed the processes which would reduce to zero the probability for occasional puffs, small amounts of radiation.
“We don’t want people who are susceptible to be there.”

When Thornburgh will give the signal for pregnant women and little children to return to their homes:
“The kind of advice I’m looking for from Denton and the technological side is that they’ve licked these problems (of radiation leakage) and the assessment from our health and environmental people that it is therefore safe for these susceptible people to return.

“The hope that was expressed was that it would be in a short period of time.”

Why Thornburgh did not order evacuation of almost half million persons although the state civil defense was ready to do it if necessary:

“When we had a briefing by Mr. Denton (on March 30), it was apparent that there was no cause for an evacuation at that time.”

Newspaper: The Sentinel
Date: April 10, 1979
Article: We learned from it
Author: Frank Masland

To the Editor:

The fact I regard the Three Mile Island incident as a happy accident calls for an explanation.

Ever since we started fooling with methods of generating nuclear energy we have wondered what would happen in the event something went wrong. At Three Mile Island just about everything went wrong. We were advised some six factors contributed to the incident. The prophets of doom have contended the result of an accident would be a major tragedy wiping out multitudes of lives.

I think we can be glad for what happened at Three Mile. Everything went wrong and nobody got hurt – which speaks volumes for the safety factor. What is more we learned a lot and the only price we pay is in dollars and cents. When an airplane crashes and 150 people stay down, we pay a price, not only in dollars and cents, but in human lives and a repetition of such accidents would indicate that we don’t learn very much.

It is good this accident happened for from this experience all the nations of the world involved in the process of generating nuclear energy will benefit. It is good it happened in the United States rather than in Russia. Had it happened there, the rest of the world probably would not have heard about it, certainly would not have been given the opportunity to learn anything from it.

Let us keep in mind the deplorable fact that a technological society is an accident prone society and congratulate ourselves that, at this point in history when we so urgently need new sources of energy, it would appear we have developed a process that can go truly haywire and the only short range and long range injury is to our pocketbook.

Frank Masland
Carlisle

To the Editor:

“Nuclear Energy is out to get me,” is a fear locked within the knowledge of a vast number of the populous.
Nuclear Energy, as a threat to our existence and creativity, has been demonstrated from its early experimentation and use. Surely dabblers in nuclear energy, past and present, have ruined it for us all. They have terrorized us with warring instruments and progressively terrorized with peaceful instruments. How can one find peace and safety with something that creates much negative effect?

We blundered our present chance for a safe and positive nuclear instrument, by the course we started and still maintain. We do however, have chances remaining to implement 100 percent safe and peaceful instruments. Instruments that will not infringe on anyone’s natural freedoms, instruments that will not breed discord, disorientation, distress or fear.

They will not cause harm to air, water, plant or animal. They will not be instruments of excessive profit for dishonest dabblers.

Until we discover that place within ourselves that demands total honesty first with oneself then with everyone we contact, threats of doom exist. Nuclear energy is not a front runner of these threats.

E.L. Stum
Carlisle

To the Editor:

For most of my life, I have lived under the comfortable threat of the “Nuclear Age.” The threat has been comfortable simply because it was no threat at all, but rather a mild topic for mild discussion on the relative instability of life itself.

Nuclear explosion, nuclear energy, nuclear family, etc., were simply titles for something unknown and realistically unrelated to my own reality. Nuclear anything was something for scientists to deal with, to play with, and take care of for the rest of us. It never before occurred to me that no one knew anything about it. I have always assumed that “someone” did, somewhere, thus taking the entire matter comfortably out of my hands, and off my mind.

What the recent incident at Three Mile Island nuclear plant has done, with embarrassing suddenness, is put nuclear everything onto my mind for the first time in 18 comfortable years of the “Nuclear Age.” Now, with no provocation on my innocent part, I want to know what it all means – nuclear holocaust, nuclear reactors, nuclear age. I want to know why I never wanted to know anything about it before. The infant gurglings of my general sensibilities say “Why didn’t anyone tell me to want to know anything about it?”
It occurs to me, and this is the thought I hoped to share with persons out there in your readership who may have similar thoughts, that most of us, including myself – average, depend with our very lives on people, figments really off in the distance, who we do not know, but trust because we assume that they – or it – someone or something knows what we do not (and therefore do not think we need to know). I will watch carefully the discussions which I am sure will be appearing in the papers and other media, about this issue, and any other issue where a lot of people who are supposed to know the same things, disagree about the same things. I will perk up when I hear probabilities of error where human beings are involved placed at 600,000,000,000 to 1. And I am not sure if I will ever be comfortable in quite the same way, again.
Perhaps others, like me, will try to keep a finger placed a little closer to the pulse of the world around us, to prevent, at the very least, a lot of little surprises.

Tammy Smith
Carlisle

Newspaper: The Sentinel
Date: April 10, 1979
Article: Safe or not, a couple ‘never going back’
Author: United Press International

MARIETTA, Pa. (UPI) – Mark and Julie Sipling are never going to return to their farmhouse a half-mile from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.

“I don’t care if Governor (Dick ) Thornburgh says it is safe to return, we are never going back,” said Julie Sipling, 22, holding her 13-month-old daughter, Debbie. “We are never going to take her back up there.”
Thornburgh announced Monday that it was safe for pregnant women and preschool children to return to their homes within a five-mile radius of Three Mile Island – site of the U.S’ worst nuclear power plant accident.

MOST HEADED BACK home, some joyfully, but the Siplings say they will never return to their rented farm.

It was March 30, two days after the Three Mile Island accident that the governor advised pregnant women and small children in the area to leave because of the possible effects of radiation.

The Siplings’ farmhouse kitchen overlooked the four huge cooling towers of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant – a mere half mile away.

An hour after the governor’s announcement, they were packed and on their way to the home of Mark’s parents in Marietta, about 10 miles to the southeast.

The decision not to go back was made over the weekend.

“We have had it there,” Mrs. Sipling said, shaking her head.

“I’m just so glad to get out of that place. I never want to see the cooling stacks of that plant again.

“MARK IS GOING TO drive up and collect our stuff and then we are moving to somewhere where we can have more peace of mind,” she said. “Mark does not trust that place anymore.”

On that tense Friday the Siplings left, Mrs. Paula Richmond, who lives on a hilltop overlooking the site, also evacuated with her daughter Michelle, 7, and son, Larry Jr., 2, to stay with her parents in Williamsport, Pa., about 100 miles to the north.

When informed that all precautionary measures had been lifted, Mrs. Richmond said: “Good! I’ll eat my supper and leave immediately for home.”

Her husband, a Teamsters truck driver who is on strike, has been staying alone in their home since the voluntary evacuation.

“I personally don’t have no fears, but I hope there will be nothing wrong with the children in the long run,” she said. “We were exposed to the worst of it. Little Larry…was playing right outside when the big whoosh came.”

Newspaper: The Sentinel
Date: April 10, 1979
Article: ‘Survival’ party planned for Goldsboro
Author: Deb Cline

State Rep. Eugene Geesey, R-92, wants to help the residents around Three Mile Island prove something to the world.

To do it, he’s planning a big party in the Goldsboro area for them, the national media, the president, the governor and his staff and others after a cold shutdown is achieved at the crippled nuclear power plant.
Goldsboro is one of the towns closest to Three Mile Island.

The bash will feature entertainment and refreshments made from all local products to prove to the world that there’s nothing wrong with Central Pennsylvania meat, milk, or candy – or people.

“OUR AREA GOT a whole lot of adverse national publicity” during Three Mile Island, Geesey said. “If something isn’t done to counteract it soon, this could end up as a sort of depressed area.”

Geesey hopes the Three Mile Island ‘survival’ party will prove to the national media “that our ears didn’t fall off, our hair didn’t turn green, that we are normal human beings living in a healthy area.”

It is also designed to give the people living near the plant a good time after their ordeal last week, to get them “thinking good things again.”

The giant get-together could happen as soon as April 29 but Geesey is waiting for the cold shutdown before a definite date is announced.

HE’S WORKING with the Fairview Township supervisors and Goldsboro emergency preparedness director to organize the affair. And he hopes local people will donate some of their products, including local pigs and steers for roasting, Hershey chocolate bars, milk and other products.

Some of these products are reportedly being rejected outside the area because of fear that they might be contaminated with radiation.

Geesey said one farmer took his pigs to auction, but they were not accepted.

Another person had his canned goods rejected in New Jersey.

Rumor has it some grocery stores in Baltimore have posted signs outside saying they do not sell Pennsylvania products.

“We will use all local products to prove to the rest of the country there just isn’t a darn thing wrong with them,” Geesey said.

Newspaper: The Sentinel
Date: April 10. 1979
Article: Action promised by NRC’s Hendrie
Author: United Press International

WASHINGTON (UPI) – Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Joseph Hendrie promised Congress today his agency will “take whatever steps are necessary” to prevent accidents like the one that crippled the Three Mile Island power plant.

But, he said, “operator errors” caused the March 28 mishap and there is no need to shut down other atomic plants of the same design.

“We believe there is reasonable assurance that the plants can continue to operate without danger to the public health and safety,” he told the Senate Nuclear Regulation Subcommittee.

HENDRIE SAID the government should examine the regulatory framework for nuclear power instead of “just thinking of improved hardware or other technical fixes” as a means of preventing future accidents.
“We cannot tolerate accidents of this kind and we must take whatever steps are necessary to prevent them,” he testified.

Hendrie called for a re-examination of the ability of all nuclear plants to deal with emergencies, upgrading training for reactor operators, increasing emphasis on safety regulations in the steam-producing units of such plants and reviewing NRC licensing procedures. Hendrie revealed that some members of the NRC “senior staff and various commissioners” had proposed either stronger warnings to “or actual evacuation of people within a two or five-mile circle around Three Mile Island” between March 30 and April 1.

BUT HE SAID because NRC staff members at the plant were more optimistic, he did not recommend that Pennsylvania Gov. Richard Thornburgh order the evacuation.

Subcommittee chairman Gary Hart, D-Colo., said in opening the hearing that while the NRC is on trial, so is Congress. But he added, “This investigation will be neither a witch-hunt nor a cover-up.”

Hart and Sen. Jennings Randolph, D-W. Va., chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, asked the Senate Monday to authorize a special investigation of the Pennsylvania power plant accident and for the extra money to pay for it.

“Although the president has announced the creation of an independent commission of experts to study the accident, it cannot replace the Congress’ obligation,” Hart said.

The subcommittee has oversight responsibility over the commission, meaning it approves its budget and has authority to raise questions about its operations.

HART SAID THE subcommittee’s questions would include:

– How the accident happened and whether there were early warnings.
– Whether the commission should have responded sooner.
– Why state and local evacuation plans had not been tested in accordance with federal regulations.
– Whether the commission depends too much on utility company information in setting license requirements.
– Who should play for the accident and the cleanup.

Newspaper: The Sentinel
Date: April 10, 1979
Article: Governor signals all clear; schools open, safe to return
Author: United Press International

HARRISBURG (UPI) – Schools shut down by the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant reopened today and school life returned to normal.

After an unscheduled recess, the 23 schools in the Susquehanna River Valley that were closed because of radiation leaks from the nuclear facility were back in business.

“I think the kids have had a pretty good lesson about Three Mile Island over the last 10 days,” said W. Reed Ernst, superintendent of the Middletown Area School District by the power plant site.

“We were anxious to get back right away. Everything’s back to normal now. We’re picking up right where we left off,” he said.

“THEY SAY THEY hate school, but they’re glad to see their friends again and basically I think they like it,” said Glenwood T. Solomon, principal of Fink Elementary School down the road from the disabled nuclear reactor.

Michelle Richmond, 7, who stood in the shadow of the Three Mile Island cooling towers waiting for her yellow school bus, was happy to be getting back to her school. Her mother temporarily enrolled her in a school in Williamsport, Pa., 100 miles north.

“I really didn’t want her to miss much,” she said.

The schools were reopened after assurances from Gov. Dick Thornburgh that the nation’s worst commercial nuclear power accident was safely under control. He gave the go-ahead after advice from Harold Denton, chief trouble-shooter on the scene for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

In a statement Monday, the governor also advised pregnant women and little children that they could return home within a five-mile radius they fled 10 days ago because of radiation leakage.

ALTHOUGH LEAKS of radiation, such as cancer-causing iodine isotope that showed up in traces of milk samples are still above normal, Denton said they have dropped rapidly toward normal levels.

Radiation readings had decreased to 1 millirem per hour over the plant and .02 millerem per hour on the adjacent banks of the Susquehanna River, he said. A reading of .01 millirem is normal in the area.

“I consider the crisis over today with regard to the core,” he said. As an indication, state civil defense authorities, who have been on “full alert” status to evacuate almost 400,000 Harrisburg area residents since the accident, are now “on call” status only.

Only a week ago, experts still believed a core meltdown was possible. That is the worst possible accident that could befall a commercial reactor. Occurring when the core cooling system fails to carry off the heat of radioactive decay, a meltdown could produce a cloud of lethal gases capable of killing thousands and contaminating a wide area. WITH THE MAIN danger averted, technicians concentrated on bleeding gases from the reactor’s primary cooling system by means of a delicate thermodynamic balancing act between pressure and temperature.

It was a slow and risky process because excessive gas buildup from too low a temperature or pressure could spawn another explosive bubble in the reactor vessel or damage the piping.

After perhaps one more degassing attempt, the experts will be poised for the final step toward cold shutdown – one that could begin as early as Friday, said Denton.

The two-phased shutdown calls for the reactor temperature to be lowered carefully below the boiling point of water while enough pressure is maintained to prevent gases from coming out of solution.

WHEN THE PRESSURE of the primary coolant water is finally lowered to atmospheric levels, the reactor will be in what Denton called “a benign state.”

Robert M. Bernero, an NRC expert, said sporadic leaks of radioactive xenon gas were still occurring, but that they were impossible to control.

Paul Critchlow, Thornburgh’ press secretary, confirmed that the NRC had detected higher than normal radiation levels around the plant Monday afternoon, but said there was no cause for alarm.

Newspaper: The Sentinel
Date: April 11, 1979
Article: For most, the crisis wasn’t that bad
Author: Deb Cline

Three Mile Island hasn’t been all bad.

In spite of increased anxiety, threats of radiation exposure and possible evacuation felt by many and the uncertain longterm economic results of the nuclear accident, local mental health professionals have seen some positive sides to the crisis.

The good things about the accident are most apparent in the way people view themselves and their friends and family and the way people worked together during the most serious moments.

“In crisis, people do evaluate where they are, where they’ve been and where they’d like to go,” said Stephen Coslett, a clinical psychologist and Dickinson College professor.

“That can be a healthy thing for couples and other people, too.”

People re-evaluate, Coslett said, because until a crisis jolts them out of their daily routine, they often get into a rut.

“THEY DON’T ever really step back and take a look.”

During a potential life or death situation, he added, “some things don’t seem so important. (People begin to think) maybe there are some bigger things in life than that.”

John Calhoun, coordinator of Holy Spirit Hospital’s crisis intervention center, agrees crises such as Three Mile Island probably cause people to re-examine their priorities in life.

But he said, “that is an immediate kind of thing. Whether it continues on a long term basis, I don’t know.”
According to David McLane, Carlisle Counseling Center director, TMI may also have jolted people into some other kinds of thinking.

“I have sensed a greater sensitivity on the part of adults to their children because a great deal of the unknown about the accident focuses on children 10 years of age and younger. It has created some enhanced sensitivity to kids,” McLane said.

COSLETT SAW benefits for the entire family during the height of Three Mile Island.

“Families, the ones who left, took care of themselves. They didn’t depend on county or local officials. That sent a real important message to kids,” Coslett said.

“You saw a lot of very busy professional people leaving. It said to the kids, ‘I may be at the office an awful lot , but when the chips are down, we’re here.’

“It said loud and clear, ‘When it gets to push and shove, you guys are first.’ That was a good message for an awful lot of families.

“I was pleased they took care of themselves,” he said. “Being head of a family is a difficult thing. This was one time they acted as a family and did a good job. I like that.”

Coslett believes the fact that people could leave the area if they wanted to was healthy, perhaps cutting down on crisis intervention calls or visits to mental health centers during the crisis.

THE NUMBER of calls to the Holy Spirit crisis intervention center, though, has increased since the crisis calmed, a not altogether unexpected occurrence, according to Calhoun.

Calhoun said the reaction of people during past disasters indicates there is a lull in calls during a crisis, but that calls pick up after the crisis has abated.

“Our work definitely has increased in relation to anxiety related to the event,” Calhoun said.

He said the number of calls may have increased 10 to 20 percent their usual level. They “are mostly an expression of they felt while they were going through it, some uneasiness, nothing drastic.”

McLane said the number of calls taken by the Carlisle Counseling Center’s crisis intervention center has not increased at any point during Three Mile Island. However, they may increase several months from now, depending on the longterm impact of the accident.

“The degree of economic impact will affect the referrals coming to us,” McLane said. “Loss of a job, high utility payments, things like that tend to precipitate mental health problems.”

BUT NO ONE yet knows how serious the longterm impact will be, or if there will be any.

The immediate psychological and emotional reactions of many persons to Three Mile Island included fear, depression, preoccupation with the accident, sleeplessness, loss of appetite, attempts to keep very busy, denial and anger.

Dr. John Mira, associate medical director of the Carlisle Counseling Center, said such symptoms are normal during a crisis but should disappear within a few weeks of the event.

More longterm reactions, Mira said, may be manifestations of latent emotional problems. Or, they may become part of the reactions of already severely neurotic or psychotic individuals.

“Normally adjusted individuals shouldn’t have longterm effects,” he said.

But psychological and emotional reactions would have been expected to be more severe if Three Mile Island had resulted in loss of life or damage to land surrounding the plant.

IF EVACUATION had been necessary, some individuals would probably have reacted with extreme denial, refusing to leave their homes under any circumstances.

“For some people, their home is their source of security,” Costlett said. “Evacuation is very traumatic for those people.” “Although a small percentage, these people would almost rather die on their front porch than leave. Their attitude is, “I pay my taxes. This is my castle. This is my security.”

Coslett believes, however, that most people reacted well to the situation, either leaving if that made them feel better or working on their own contingency plan.

Keeping busy in other ways was another good way to cope, according to Calhoun.

But, he said, “That does not mean you should be blocking out or completely forgetting about what’s happening. It’s out there and it’s real. It’s just as healthy to talk about it and get out your feelings and frustrations and anxiety. It’s always good to do that.”

Coslett believes it is a lot easier to cope with definite news even if it is negative than news that is uncertain.

Frequent conflicting reports about Three Mile Island didn’t help matters.

“What we lack in fact, we make up in fiction,” he said, “and we usually make it up worse than it is.”

MIRA BELIEVES some uncertainty, perhaps fear, will continue until the Three Mile Island accident is at least a year old.

“If they start up the plant again, people will be uncomfortable until one year goes by. If nothing happens then, they will probably be able to accept it.

“There will be some who won’t ever feel comfortable with it, but people tend to forget, especially after an anniversary date goes by,” Mira said.

But although some negative aspects of the accident may remain, Coslett believes the positive attitude reflected in many Three Mile Island teeshirts (I survived Three Mile Island”) may prevail.

“You can make it into anything you want to make it into,” he said. “You can make it a growth experience…If you want to read dread and gloom into it, you can do that too. But we grow through stress.

“There is a growth that can come out of trauma in thinking that we coped with the greatest nuclear power disaster in the world and we came out of it okay.”

Editor’s Note: Portions of this story appeared in the Wednesday, April 4, Evening Sentinel.

Newspaper: The Sentinel
Date: April 11, 1979
Article: … into a future that’s uncertain
Author: Deb Cline

The Three Mile Island crisis hasn’t ended before plans were made to investigate what went wrong and what the effects of the accident would be.

Hearings and investigations will be held in Harrisburg and in Washington D.C – before state agencies and legislative committees and before committees of the U.S Congress.

President Carter, who visited the Three Mile Island site last Sunday, has also announced creation of a special presidential commission to investigate the causes of the nuclear accident and recommend ways to improve plant safety.

While legislative efforts to probe the accident could be consolidated to save time, money and avoid confusion, they will probably not be.

On the federal congressional level, every committee or subcommittee in the U.S. House and Senate that has any jurisdiction at all over nuclear energy will likely conduct hearings of some kind.

THE INVESTIGATIONS on the state level will be more consolidated, but still, the Senate and House may hold separate hearings on the matter instead of joining forces.

The state Public Utility Commission, which has responsibility for approving or denying utility rate hikes, will conduct an informal investigation into the accident. That investigation could determine whether Metropolitan Edison, part owner of the power plant, will be able to implement a rate hike granted it March 29 and whether it will receive additional funds to help pay for the accident costs.

THE NUCLEAR Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that has licensing power over nuclear power plants, will likely hold hearings and issue a report on Three Mile Island. But the schedule of those hearings is not yet available.

NRC officials did brief the five agency commissioners last Wednesday in preparation for future hearings.
One congressional spokesman said the NRC is expected to confine its hearings to the specific accident and persons involved at Three Mile Island and is not likely to deal with differing philosophies about the safety of nuclear energy.

THE SITUATION at Three Mile Island had barely eased when Sen. Edward Kennedy’s Health and Scientific Research Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Human Resources began to hold hearing on the potential long range effects of radiation emissions from the plant.

The House Interior subcommittee on Energy and the Environment, chaired by Rep. Morris Udall, also held hearings last Thursday and may schedule others.

The only other hearings actually scheduled thus far will be held by the U.S. House subcommittee on Energy Research and Production.

The hearings, which are set to begin May 15 and end June 7, will cover nuclear power plant safety, nuclear high level waste management and low level radiation.

Other congressional committees that may hold hearings or investigations include Sen. Henry Jackson’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee or one of its subcommittees; Sen. Gary Hart’s subcommittee on Nuclear Regulation, part of the Senate Committee of the Environment and Public Works; the House subcommittee on Health and the Environment.

Other potential hearing panels are the Government Operations Committees in the House and Senate; the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on Advanced Energy Technology, Conservation, Development and Demonstration.

There are six House subcommittees alone that deal with energy, and all may want to get in on the Three Mile Island action.

THERE IS NOT expected to be as much duplication of investigative efforts on the state as on the federal level.

State House leaders have basically agreed to form a 24-member panel composed of members of six standing committees to conduct a Three Mile Island investigation.

The committee, proposed by a group of Central Pennsylvania legislatures, would include members of the House committee on agriculture, business and commerce, consumer affairs, health and welfare, military and veterans affairs and mines and energy management committees.

Rep. Stephen Reed, D-Harrisburg, one of the legislators to propose the committee, said the probe will not begin until a cold shutdown is achieved at the power plant. He said many of the witnesses the committee would call are working at the plant.

And he said the committee wants to avoid reaching premature conclusions about the situation.

Among the subjects the legislators suggest the committee examine are the effectiveness of existing emergency preparedness and evacuation procedures, additional safety and regulatory procedures, methods of improving federal, state and local coordination, review of health and safety hazards and an examination of the role of nuclear power in meeting the state’s energy needs.

Newspaper: The Sentinel
Date: April 11, 1979
Article: Moving from a troubled past …
Author: Kathy Liebler

Three Mile Island is three miles long, located three miles south of Middletown.

The property, owned by Metropolitan Edison Co. since 1906, is the site of two pressurized water nuclear reactors, Three Mile Island units 1 and 2, the 44th and 21st largest atomic reactors in the world.
Unit 1, a 792 – megawatt reactor, started commercially operating in 1974, after seven years of construction.

In 1970, construction of the larger Unit 2, a 905 – megawatt reactor, began, with commercial operation underway in December 1978.

Unit 2 became critical, that is operational when a sustained reaction was begun in the reactor core, March 28, 1978, at 4:37 a.m. Exactly one year later, almost to the hour, Three Mile Island’s Unit 2 would be the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident.

SOME CRITICS of nuclear power say, considering repeated mechanical failure during its testing period, Met-Ed should have never started up the power generating plant.

Although commercial operations of Unit 2 would not begin until Dec. 30, 1978, the reactor during its nine-month testing period prior to that time was shut down 195 of 274 days, consumer advocate Ralph Nader says. Public Citizen, a Nader “watchdog” group, has charged that Unit 2 was rushed into commercial operation Dec. 30 so the plant’s owners could save $40 million in taxes in 1978.

Nader’s report concludes that from the time Unit 2 went critical to the time it was placed in commercial service, problems and malfunctions occurred that contributed to the March 28 accident.

According to the investigation, the problems included 12 accidental trips, or malfunctions, including four that activated the emergency core cooling system, and seven shutdowns of the entire system for repairs.

The Nader report points out that despite the fact the unit was experiencing continual mechanical failures, in the nine-month period before Dec.30, Metropolitan Edison reported it had successfully completed start up tests and procedures required under the terms of its license and thereafter declared Unit 2 to be in commercial service.

THE LONG and troubled history of mechanical malfunctions is recorded in detail in records of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Unit 2 has been cited for as many as 22 safety violations, with the NRC claiming that two auxiliary coolant valves, under maintenance for at least two weeks before the accident, had been kept closed until the accident occurred.

The NRC has noted the seriousness of the violation stating “there would have been an entirely different outcome if the valves would have been operating as they should have been.”

Facts compiled by Public Citizen and the staff of syndicated columnist Jack Anderson tell the story of Three Mile Island Unit 2 during its 1978 testing period and its short-lived history of commercial service.
Date and mechanical failures include:

April 1 – Unit 2 reactor trips in response to signal indicating pump failure in a primary coolant loop.
April 18 – Reactor trips due to electrical indication.
April 23 – Another electrical signal causes reactor trip and consequent turbine trip. Five of 12 main steam valves open and fail to close. Together with overfeeding of the steam generators, there is rapid loss of pressure in cooling system. Inspections later show failure of bellows due to design error and unsatisfactory performance of main steam relief valves. Plant is shut down for five months for redesign and parts replacement.
Sept. 18 – Plant is regenerated.
Sept. 20 and 25 – Reactor trips due to problems with main feed pumps.
Oct.13 – Valve in pressurizer in primary coolant system breaks down requiring shutdown of reactor.
Oct. 14 – Turbine trips due to loss of main feed water pump.
Oct. 20 – 21 – Turbine trips due to problems with power grid.
Oct. 28 – Turbine shut down for 3 ½ days for repair. Reactor is also shut down to repair a valve in the primary coolant.
Nov. 7 – Pump failure causes reactor to trip.
Nov. 21 – Feedwater system found contaminated with turbine lubricating oil, requiring 11-day clean up.
Dec. 16 – Turbine is shut down to repair main feedwater pump that will take six days.
Dec. 30 – 11 a.m.: Turbine is shut down to repair steam leak. 2:15 p.m.: Turbine is started. 11 p.m.: Plant is declared commercial, 25 hours before the end of the year.
Jan. 2, 1979 – Turbine is shut down to repair leaky valve.
Jan. 14 – Turbine shut down again because of leaky valve, also reactor is shut down to repair leaks in isolation valves connected with pressurizer.
Jan. 15 – Reactor is restarted. During a turbine trip test, the steam is released due to a loss of vacuum in condenser. A steam expansion bellows ruptures, venting steam to the control building. Power to pressurize is lost and reactor trips. Reactor is cooled to make repairs and is out of service for 17 days.
Feb. 2 – A heater pump breaks down.
Feb. 6- A main feedwater pump trips twice causing automatic reduction to 55 percent power.
Feb. 10 – Turbine is shut down to repair leaky valve in the secondary coolant system.
March 28 – Series of malfunctions occurs at Three Mile Island Unit 2 releasing significant amounts of radiation and creating significant danger of core meltdown.
Met-Ed officials, asked to comment on the plant shutdowns and mechanical failures, said, “Material is not available to confirm or deny the reports at this time.”