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Re: TMI 30 Years Later
THREE MILE ISLAND: 30 YEARS LATER
Powering up
The coffee mug handed out Wednesday to reporters from as far away as Germany read "Three Mile Island: Clean, Safe, Reliable."
That's the message organizers wanted to give for media day at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The event came two weeks shy of the 30th anniversary of America's worst nuclear accident.
On March 28, 1979, residents across the region fled after a valve malfunctioned at TMI's Unit 2 reactor, triggering a partial meltdown of the reactor's core and releasing radiation into the atmosphere.
Media from all over the world filled the hotels around Pennsylvania's capital to cover the accident, which was the worst commercial incident until the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion in Ukraine.
And while people still debate whether a dangerous amount of radiation was released, the event did have one clear fallout: a chilling effect on American nuclear plant construction.
But the world -- and the state of the nuclear industry -- is far different today, according to the plant's media relations staff.
Though Unit 2 is permanently shut down, with most of its fuel sent to Idaho for storage, the undamaged Unit 1 appears to be on the cusp of getting approval to extend its operating life for 20 more years.
Since late 2007, 17 companies have proposed building 26 plants, including one in Luzerne County, according to Tom Kauffman, media relations manager for the Nuclear Energy Institute.
Concerns about global warming and energy demands have driven the renewed interest in nuclear power, Kauffman said.
Kauffman said he is confident that four to eight new plants will be operating by 2018, and more will follow, even though President Barack Obama is not as ardent a supporter of new nuclear power plants as is Sen. John McCain, Obama's Republican opponent in the presidential race.
As far as safety, Kauffman said nuclear power is the most heavily regulated industry in the U.S., and that the plants are safer to work in than a grocery store.
John Schork, training manager for TMI, which is owned by Exelon Corp., said staffers receive intensive training.
Every nuclear plant has a simulator for its operators, who go through two years of training before receiving their licenses, Schork said. Operators continue to train for one week out of every six and are continually tested, he said.
Longtime nuclear energy critics such as local activist Eric Epstein urge caution, however.
"Where's the waste going to go?" questioned Epstein, chairman of the watchdog group Three Mile Island Alert. "Where's the money to decommission the plant?... There's a moral bankruptcy in creating a toxic waste product you don't know how to dispose of."
Kauffman said waste is being stored at nuclear plants, and there is positive movement toward creating a permanent waste facility at Yucca Mountain, Nev.
The nuclear industry has learned important lessons from the 1979 accident, said Ralph DeSantis, a TMI spokesman.
"We come to work every day dedicated to the fact it will never happen again," he said.
MONICA VON DOBENECK: 832-2090 or mdobeneck@patriot-news.com
Re: TMI 30 Years Later
I was very young when this occured, and vaguely remember it. Would have been interesting to live thru though, that's for sure. Yeah, I think the busted reactor is just shut down, locked up, and never entered again since. Scary times then.
I don't have a problem with Nuclear Energy, however, disposing of it's waste is a problem. I think nuclear is more of a good crossover fix until wind & solar can vastly improve in 20-30 years (hopefully). Realying on it for decades or centuries will lead to more crises like TMI & Chernobyl.
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