Three Mile Island/2007

[33rdPatriot]

Three Mile Island happened 12 days after the multi-million dollar blockbuster CHINA SYNDROME was released. Then POOF. Result: Nuclear power was sullied and soiled, while devil-we-know oil kept hold and entrenched big oil interests benefitted. Cheney and Rumsfeld were in the White House and had been at power for years. 30 years later, Obama licenses first two new nuclear power plants in 30 years, followed 6 months later by BP GULF OIL disaster. When will you wake up?

[codyboy1996]

stop duing polution fuck

[shreehanbrighteyes12]

TMI Reactor 1 is still operational, But Reactor 2 is Inoperational due to the events of the meltdown in '79. The core in Reactor 2 has been removed. But is still in commissioned status. TMI-1 renewed its license in 2009 for till April 2034. The generator for TMI-2 is in the process of being removed to be used at the Shearon Harris Facility in New Hill North Carolina.

[hyperbob101]

booo i hate bnuclear energy although it powers like 95% of all our power idc booo

[alter656667]

Are the 2 on the left in use?

[tuttt99]

FYI Unit 2 was the unit that failed. Unit 1 is still operational.

[vfr700]

for those of you who believe in the china syndrome you should know that it could never happen once the core melted the uranium had no other particles so it couldn't melt threw the concrete and the ground.and plus they moved it out so it couldn't have gone threw the floor.

[milofonbil]

Nonsense. Of course China syndrome can happen. Albeit the probability is very low. The first and second generation were not designed to prevent the molten reactor fuel from pooling in the bottom of the reactor after a core meltdown.

in TMI, the core only had a partial meltdown. The reactor vessel was not breached on the bottom.

See the Wikipedia article "Nuclear meltdown"

[NollCo]

No.

[HiTekVagabond]

Nuclear Power - one of the most complicated ways to boil water.

[tuttt99]

Boiled water (aka steam) is an *extremely valuable* resource. It is one of the best and most efficient ways to convert thermal energy into useful work.

Nuclear fuel can make thousands of times more steam than its equivalent mass in coal. And it doesn't dump massive amounts of sulphur dioxide, CO2, and radioactive elements (thorium, uranium, radium, potassium-40, and lead-210) directly into the *atmosphere*, the way that coal plants do.

So what's your point?

[milofonbil]

Actually, converting heat to kinetic energy is only about 30% efficient. It is a fundamental limitation of the carnot cycle.

Yes, the nuclear fission is thousands times more energetic than the chemical reaction of burning coal. However, nuclear power does have a serious problem with its waste products, which remain radioactive for 450,000 years or more. Nuclear power has severe problems when it is not in control. It is a risk for us and the waste is a legacy for thousands of generations.

[JlkJlk18000]

@HiTekVagabond not really complicated... the fuel rods get hot because they are radioactive it heats we get power and charlie sheen wins... simple... the hard part it keeping it from going haywire and melting the core... so they use graphite rods to control the heat... like a heat sink for your computer... problem is keeping those rods from heating to the point of explosion...

[jmkpns]

Was the 1979 film "China Syndrome" crap or could it happen because I hear people like Sean Hannity who I listen to on the radio champion nuclear power.

[milofonbil]

Three Mile Island is located on a sandbar in the middle of the Susquehanna River. The water table is consequently very close to the surface. Three mile Island was within one hour of completely melting down the core. As it stands, half of the core did melt. Had they delayed in re-flooding the reactor, the core could have melted down through the bottom of the reactor and could have hit water below. This would have caused an immediate explosion. The containment bldg - completely insufficient.

[crackencody]

thus creating a substantilly large-boom. all eastern pennsylvanians would have been toast. literally. happy trails :)

[zenmachinefilms]

Is TMI-2 impossible to salvage? Just sitting there, forever? Anyone know?

[NollCo]

The problem is the cost to refurbish versus what they'd get. It's a lot more expensive to get rid of radioactive waste than normal trash. The Reactor building for Unit-2 has rad. waste that has seeped into the concrete. It'd be massively expensive to deconstruct unit 2's reactor building and then construct a new one. Just isnt worth the cost.

[zenmachinefilms]

Thanks for the updated info. I thought all the waste had been long removed, and didn't realize some had seeped into the concrete. That would be expensive to fix.

[NollCo]

What waste that can or could've been removed safely, in a more controlled environment, has been. I can't think of anytime in the near future that Unit-2's reactor building is going to be deconstructed. Any type of demolition of the U2 reactor building would release any remainging radiation into the air. You'd need a very large type of enclosure to do a safe demolition without harming the surrounding area with radiation.

[zenmachinefilms]

Thanks again for the good info. Always wondered why they didn't get TM-2 going again after they pulled all the material out. Now I know.

[odyma43]

i don't think they reativated unit 2

[milofonbil]

nope ... the half molten core was moved to Idaho National Labs. Both TMI-1 and TMI-2 are scheduled be decommissioned in parallel when TMI-1 gets retired. TMI-1 is licensed to operate until April 19, 2014, but the current owners have applied to extend the operating license for another 20 years.

[Ascensiam]

Nuclear power creates no pollution at all, its steam coming out of those towers.

However, nuclear waste is a serious problem

[Mel7766]

If you don't like nuclear power and are afraid of global warming... shut down your puter!

[videopray]

i think out of all nuclear accidents CHernobyl and windscale... i think that this would be worse than both of thoughs if this Melted down agin...

[Grosseschlang]

The warning lights at Three Miles these days, is it strobes or regular red Q-flashing beacons?

[97950886]

i just watched viva la bam that parts so funny lol

[jojophai]

Bam: whats up with them glasses?

Rake: you see that. thats called a nuclear reactor- three mile island.

Bam: what does that have to do with the glasses?

Rake: they help me. this way high intensity protons won't hit my eyeballs

Bam:(laugh) High intensity protons!

from Viva La Bam

[cmz23]

wow...

[xxvtpatrick]

apparently that is funny...yeah.hilarious

[KSE828]

Such a good show!

[Wingblaze17]

I passed by this the other day at night...It was soo awesome

[yummyhoagie]

Saw the movie 'The China Syndrome' last night, made me look this up. That's a insane coincidence..the movie came out a month or so before the mishap at TMI.

I recall this, 6 years old in the Philly area. The breaking news on TV,radio. eck

[kuzwak11]

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu bad'

[BJinPA]

Unit 1 is the operating unit ...

Unit 2 was the 1979 accident site ...

Believe me , I know ...

Regards , BJnPa

[xxvtpatrick]

so what is up with unit 2? Superfund site? Okay? Stable?

what would happen if a nuclear plant actually had a meltdown?

[DareDevilK9]

look at Chernobyl we'ed be royaly ****ed for generations

[arinlares]

Chernobyl didn't melt down. There was a faulty pressure release switch. The pressure built, and blew out the side of the #3 or #4 reactor, scattering radioactive waste along the landscape. 3 mile island was a small meltdown, that thankfully, was kept under control (only leaked an unstable xenon isotope, which emitted less radiation than an X-ray machine).

[NollCo]

Unit-2 was only a partial meltdown, not a full meltdown.

[arinlares]

oh... ok. thanks.

[milofonbil]

Nonsense. TMI-2 was not in control. It resulted in the release of a significant amount of radioactivity, an estimated 43,000 curies of radioactive krypton (1.59 PBq) and 20 curies (740 GBq) of the particularly hazardous iodine-131.

[Darkwizzrobe]

Yeah if we didn't have a containment structure around the reactor, unlike Chernobyl.

[milofonbil]

Chernobyl did have a steel containment. They felt it could be thinner because it was much larger. Chernobyl was built very much like a plutonium production reactor.

At TMI Hundreds of thousands of gallons of radioactive water were dumped into the Susquehanna river. Radioactive gas was released into the atmosphere and detected as far away as Albany.

Containment vessels work during normal operation. No containment used today can hold an explosion like Chernobyl had.

[milofonbil]

TMI had a partial meltdown.

[Grosseschlang]

Cool clip, do you have a night clip as well? I've heard that the cooling towers are lit by night, is that true?

[Pensinspace]

look at Limerick Generating Station, that is lit by night for safety reasons

[keir150]

yea it is a safety risk for them not to be lit as low flying planes might hit them during the night.