May 1982 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.... Watch the full program: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/09/three-mile-island-accident-interv...
Interview with Randy King
The Three Mile Island accident of 1979 was a partial core meltdown in Unit 2 (a pressurized water reactor manufactured by Babcock & Wilcox) of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg. It was the most significant accident in the history of the American commercial nuclear power generating industry, resulting in the release of up to 481 PBq (13 million curies) of radioactive gases, but less than 740 GBq (20 curies) of the particularly dangerous iodine-131.
The accident began at 4:00 A.M. on Thursday, March 29, 1979, with failures in the non-nuclear secondary system, followed by a stuck-open pilot-operated relief valve (PORV) in the primary system, which allowed large amounts of reactor coolant to escape. The mechanical failures were compounded by the initial failure of plant operators to recognize the situation as a loss of coolant accident due to inadequate training and ambiguous control room indicators. The scope and complexity of the accident became clear over the course of five days, as employees of Metropolitan Edison (Met Ed, the utility operating the plant), Pennsylvania state officials, and members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) tried to understand the problem, communicate the situation to the press and local community, decide whether the accident required an emergency evacuation, and ultimately end the crisis.
In the end, the reactor was brought under control, although full details of the accident were not discovered until much later, following extensive investigations by both a presidential commission and the NRC. The Kemeny Commission Report concluded that "there will either be no case of cancer or the number of cases will be so small that it will never be possible to detect them. The same conclusion applies to the other possible health effects." Several epidemiological studies in the years since the accident have supported the conclusion that radiation releases from the accident had no perceptible effect on cancer incidence in residents near the plant, though these findings have been contested by one team of researchers.
Public reaction to the event was probably influenced by the release (12 days before the accident) of a movie called The China Syndrome, depicting an accident at a nuclear reactor. Communications from officials during the initial phases of the accident were felt to be confusing. The accident was followed by a cessation of new nuclear plant construction in the US.
According to the official figures, as compiled by the 1979 Kemeny Commission from Metropolitan Edison and NRC data, a maximum of 480 petabecquerels (13 million curies) of radioactive noble gases (primarily xenon) were released by the event. However these noble gases were considered relatively harmless, and only 481 to 629 GBq (13 to 17 curies) of thyroid cancer-causing iodine-131 were released. Total releases according to these figures were a relatively small proportion of the estimated 37 EBq (10 billion curies) in the reactor. It was later found that about half the core had melted, and the cladding around 90% of the fuel rods had failed, with five feet of the core gone, and around 20 tons of uranium flowing to the bottom head of the pressure vessel. However, the reactor vessel maintained integrity and contained the damaged fuel.
However, the official figures are not uncontested. Independent measurements provided evidence of radiation levels up to five times higher than normal in locations hundreds of miles downwind from TMI. According to Randall Thompson, the lead health physicist at TMI after the accident (a veteran of the US Navy nuclear submarine program and a self-confessed "nuclear geek"), radiation releases were hundreds if not thousands of times higher. Some other insiders, including Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear industry executive turned whistle-blower, concur; Gundersen offers evidence, based on pressure monitoring data, for a hydrogen explosion shortly before 2 p.m. on 28 March 1979, which would have provided the means for a high dose of radiation to occur. Gundersen cites affidavits from four reactor operators according to which the plant manager was aware of a dramatic pressure spike, after which the internal pressure dropped to outside pressure. Gundersen also notes that the control room shook and doors were blown off hinges. However official NRC reports refer merely to a "hydrogen burn." The Kemeny Commission referred to "a burn or an explosion that caused pressure to increase by 28 pounds per square inch in the containment building."
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sounds like Fukushima now. ????? what would happen there.
MrHurricaneTracker 2 weeks ago
Lol no. Fukashima was messy because it was on water and there were earthquake and tsunami related complications. Three Mile Island was a joke; the reactor still had safeguards that weren't even necessary for the situation and effectively zero radiation was actually leaked. And in the video that one retard says it could have "wiped out the whole eastern seaboard," which is either fantasy or fear-mongering. The media loves both of those.
CShermanH 3 weeks ago
@CShermanH Are you trolling or just a moron? The core was uncovered and if left like that, it would have been similar to Fukushima.
StarryKid06 1 month ago
This shit makes me sick. Nothing happened at three mile island. Nor was there a risk of anything happened. I wish people didn't just eat up sensationalized bullshit.
CShermanH 2 months ago
Bam
pozzygames 4 months ago
one solution, is siemens gas turbines. they are built right here in charlotte, nc. they have been built in europe at 50 Hrz. here in the US, they say, they can build 60 Hrz engines. giant gas turbine generators, using the power from the turbine and the heat exhaust from the turbine to produce... i don't remember, 470 mega watts.
theratfarmer 4 months ago
i also said something about "fatblack", i have no idea what i was talking about. i must have read or heard something about fatblack, i don't remember. sometimes i go into these meditated states of thinking and .....stuff just comes out of nowhere. [part two]
theratfarmer 4 months ago
i had to look this up, i make a lot of comments. thats all they are, comments.
i don't know. i said what i felt at that time. i can change my mind, i'm not rush limbaugh. randy is a very intelligent guy, with a masters or doctorate in physics or mathimatics (i'm guessing). [part one]
theratfarmer 4 months ago
Governments worldwide have been covering up nuclear meltdowns for fifty years to protect the nuclear industry …
w w w washingtonsblog com / 2011 / 03 / governments-have-been-covering-up html
macmarine 8 months ago
Thanks to the criminal ENTERGY Corp. and thanks to corrupt state and federal regulators/politicians the next Fukushima-type catastrophe will most probably happen in the continental US. ENTERGY buys 30+ y old junk reactors that should be shut down ASAP, renews the licenses and ramps up power output. Now that's a good recipe for death on a massive scale.
China, India, Russia and Europe will be so very glad when the biggest bully will have successfully removed himself from the global schoolyard.
macmarine 8 months ago