Posted on 11/02/2006 7:19:22 PM PST by jmc1969
The reactor at Three Mile Island, site of the nation's worst nuclear accident, shut down Thursday, but radiation was not released and there was no danger to the public, company and federal officials said.
A faulty instrument reading triggered the automatic shutdown, officials said. It was the first shutdown of Unit 1 since 1997, said Ralph DeSantis, a spokesman for the plant's operator, AmerGen Energy Co. LLC.
The unit, which opened in 1974, shut off at 1:35 p.m. and remained down Thursday evening.
The plant, about 10 miles southeast of Harrisburg, was the site of the nation's worst nuclear accident when a partial meltdown occurred in the Unit 2 reactor in March 1979.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Never forget...more people died in Ted Kennedy's Oldsmobile than at Three Mile Island, so this "worst accident" didn't amount to much.
Dang...why don't we just build these things out near Barbara Streisand's house in Malibu?
Then, a nuclear accident wouldn't be a wholly negative event.
All of our nuclear power plants are obsolete and insufficient to meet today's energy demands.
Sounds like a spurious scram, no big deal.
I question the timing of this "accident".
>>>but radiation was not released and there was no danger to the public, company and federal officials said.<<<
Yeah...they said the same thing in 1979.
/laughs
Why French reactors. US companies have been building modern reactors in foreign countries for years.
The reactors currently in operation in this country have increased output every year for the last ten years.
Considering that fact and that no new base load units have been built in the US for twenty years, I believe shutting down any of the current plants prior to the end of their useful life would be foolish.
Somebody spill a Pepsi?
In other breaking news: A fuse blew out at the Con Edison plant in Long Island City, causing several dozen residents to lose power for 10 minutes ........... woman, children, and minorities hit hardest.
Radiation and radioisotopes were released in 1979, but there were no fatailities and no increase in cancer deaths as a result. Those who fear nuclear power are the same who harbor irrational, hysterical fears of: asbestos, secondhand smoke, guns in the hands of citizens, DDT, global warming, or the grave dangers to the global biosystem if the Preeble's mouse, snail darter, spotted owl, or prairie dog were wiped out.
Actually, Westinghouse (now owned by Mitsubishi) builds a pretty nice reactor...buy Pennsylvania (by way of Japan) first!!!!!
The amount of radiation released then was the equivalent of two dental xrays.
Not true. The Geiger counters where I worked spiked off the meter.
Um... TMI has been a plant best described as a world class performer for over 20 years now. Safe and very reliable.
TMI is on a 2 year refueling cycle, which means it shuts down for about five weeks every other year for refueling and maintenance. It has been so reliable that it has not been shutdown for even an instant in any non refueling calander year for over a decade. Few, if any, plants in the world can match that operational performance. No French unit even comes close.
Basically, from my experience operating nuclear reactors (in the Navy) this means that there wasn't an issue in safely operating the reactor, but if one or more further instruments failed that they would have to scram. Sort of a minor issue here and not worthy of the notice of the AP. Read the recent event reports and you will find tons of events more serious than this in the last 2 weeks. This event is only getting attention because it involves the TMI plant.
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