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3 Mile Island Reactor Shuts Down
AP ^ | November 2 2006

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 ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
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1 posted on 11/02/2006 7:19:23 PM PST by jmc1969
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To: jmc1969

Never forget...more people died in Ted Kennedy's Oldsmobile than at Three Mile Island, so this "worst accident" didn't amount to much.


2 posted on 11/02/2006 7:21:46 PM PST by kittymyrib
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To: jmc1969

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.


3 posted on 11/02/2006 7:23:25 PM PST by rlmorel (The US Media...Where you get Million Dollar Words From people with a Ten Cent Fart for a brain.)
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To: jmc1969
This plant should be mothballed, IMO, and replaced with a next-generation nuclear reactor built by the French.

All of our nuclear power plants are obsolete and insufficient to meet today's energy demands.

4 posted on 11/02/2006 7:24:36 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: jmc1969
A faulty instrument reading triggered the automatic shutdown,....

In other words, it worked exactly as designed.

More Nukes, Please!!!!!
5 posted on 11/02/2006 7:24:45 PM PST by rottndog (WOOF!!!)
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To: jmc1969

Sounds like a spurious scram, no big deal.


6 posted on 11/02/2006 7:26:26 PM PST by Nuc1 (NUC1 Sub pusher SSN 668 (Liberals Aren't Patriots))
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To: jmc1969

I question the timing of this "accident".


7 posted on 11/02/2006 7:27:22 PM PST by Question Liberal Authority (Kerry's Joke Insulted The Wrong People In The Wrong War At the Wrong Time)
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To: jmc1969

>>>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.


8 posted on 11/02/2006 7:28:42 PM PST by Palladin (Vote for Rick Santorum, a true prolife conservative!)
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To: jmc1969
The plant, about 10 miles southeast of Harrisburg, was the site of the nation's worst nuclear accident which was darn paltry.
9 posted on 11/02/2006 7:31:19 PM PST by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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To: Nuc1
Sounds more like the liberal activists at AP not only want to re-live their glory days of Vietnam protests and Abbie Hoffman, but also want to re-live their glory days of China Syndrome!

/laughs

10 posted on 11/02/2006 7:32:05 PM PST by Mr_Moonlight
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
replaced with a next-generation nuclear reactor built by the French.

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.

11 posted on 11/02/2006 7:33:09 PM PST by Pontiac (All are worthy of freedom, none are incapable.)
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To: kittymyrib
"Never forget...more people died in Ted Kennedy's Oldsmobile than at Three Mile Island, so this "worst accident" didn't amount to much."

Beat me to it.
12 posted on 11/02/2006 7:33:21 PM PST by RW_Whacko
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To: jmc1969

Somebody spill a Pepsi?


13 posted on 11/02/2006 7:36:00 PM PST by razorback-bert (I met Bill Clinton once but he didn’t really talk — he was hitting on my wife)
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To: jmc1969

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.


14 posted on 11/02/2006 7:36:06 PM PST by Mr_Moonlight
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To: Palladin
Yeah...they said the same thing in 1979.

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.

15 posted on 11/02/2006 7:40:40 PM PST by coloradan (Failing to protect the liberties of your enemies establishes precedents that will reach to yourself.)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Actually, Westinghouse (now owned by Mitsubishi) builds a pretty nice reactor...buy Pennsylvania (by way of Japan) first!!!!!


16 posted on 11/02/2006 7:45:29 PM PST by PennsylvaniaMom (Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you...)
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To: Palladin

The amount of radiation released then was the equivalent of two dental xrays.


17 posted on 11/02/2006 7:50:25 PM PST by cibco (Xin Loi! Saddam)
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To: cibco

Not true. The Geiger counters where I worked spiked off the meter.


18 posted on 11/02/2006 7:52:09 PM PST by Palladin (Vote for Rick Santorum, a true prolife conservative!)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

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.


19 posted on 11/02/2006 8:05:56 PM PST by brutuss
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To: jmc1969
There is no event report yet. They should have filed within 8 hours so I'm guessing that the NRC web site hasn't updated yet (since it is now approaching 10 hours). The NRC spokesman noted: "It appears this was an uncomplicated, smooth shutdown," so it wasn't a scram (they didn't fear that reactor safeguards had been compromised to the point where it wasn't safe to perform a shutdown versus a scram)--therefore it was probably a minor instrument or if it was a major instrument their redundant instruments were working.

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.

20 posted on 11/02/2006 8:09:31 PM PST by burzum (Despair not! I shall inspire you by charging blindly on!--Minsc, BG2)
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