1979 Accident
30th anniversary of TMI's accident: Resources for Reporters
Submitted by webEditor on Thu, 02/19/2009 - 15:11
March 28 will mark the 30th anniversary of the accident at the Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pa. The TMI-2 accident had the greatest impact on nuclear regulation of any single event in history. Although there were no deaths or injuries, the accident is a reminder for the NRC and those who operate plants to remain vigilant in watching over the 104 operating reactors in the United States to ensure their safe operation.
Scott Portzline keeps watch on TMI security
Submitted by webEditor on Wed, 02/18/2009 - 12:25Scott Portzline has kept watch on security issues at Three Mile Island for 25 years.
Three Mile Island: The People’s Testament by Aileen Mioko Smith, 1989
Submitted by webEditor on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 18:31This is an excellent article written by Aileen Mioko Smith
for the 10th anniversary of the Three Mile Island Accident in 1989. The author interviewed residents who lived near
Three Mile Island at the time of the accident and chronicled their stories and experiences, which are stil denied by
government and nuclear industry officials.
Aileen is executive director of Green Action, a Japanese environmental NGO based in Kyoto, Japan.
She was nominated for the National Book Award (USA) in 1976 for the book "Minamata," co-authored with W. Eugene Smith.
(Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975.)
A Chronology of Incidents at TMI Unit-2: 1979-2003
Submitted by TMIA on Mon, 01/12/2009 - 13:481979
March 28, 1979, 4:00 a.m. - Beginning of the Three Mile Island (TMI) Unit-2 loss-of-coolant, core melt accident. The plant came within 30 minutes of a full meltdown. The reactor vessel was destroyed, and large amounts of unmonitored radiation was released directly into the community.
March 28, 1979, 4:30 p.m. - Press conference of Lt. Governor William Scranton:
Three Mile Island and the Vigilant Professor
Submitted by webEditor on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 22:55By Russell Dupree
Three Mile Island and the Vigilant Professor
Thirty years ago, April 1, 1979, on the rooftop of a building at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, a nuclear radiation recording device went from being relatively quiescent to rapidly recording extremely high levels of beta radiation, 100 times the normal background levels.
The equipment had been set up by USM physics professor Charles Armentrout a few days earlier as a teaching project for his students to see if any fission products from the Three Mile Island power plant accident could be detected in Maine. It was a rainy Sunday, five days after the partial meltdown at the power plant just southeast of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Behind The Scenes Of Three Mile Island in 1979
Submitted by webEditor on Wed, 04/08/2009 - 13:09By Victor Gilinsky
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
March 23, 2009
Shortly after I arrived at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)'s headquarters in Washington, D.C., at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, March 28, 1979, I got a call from the commission's emergency center in Bethesda, Md.
The number two reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania had declared a general emergency.
There weren't supposed to be serious accidents at nuclear power plants and having to deal with one led to some, let us say, out-of-the-ordinary, and even absurd, behavior.
TMI Alert, nuclear industry advocate face off
Submitted by webEditor on Tue, 03/31/2009 - 11:51Three Mile Island Alert Chairman Eric Epstein faces off with Nuclear Energy Institute vice president of communications Scott Peterson in a video debate on the state of the nuclear industry.
The discussion between Epstein and Peterson is moderated by Susan McGinnis of CleanSkies TV, and follows a news presentation of what happened at Three Mile Island's Unit 2 reactor on March 28, 1979.
Epstein emphasizes the unanswered questions haunting the nuclear industry: What to do with the waste, where to find the water to run the plants, and why private investment won't support the industry. Industry advocate Peterson calls the 1979 accident a "controlled release" of radiation and insists the market will support industry growth.
To view the program, go to:
Find the link button to CleanSkies Sunday and then click on the video program on Three Mile Island.
Video: TMI and Community Health
Submitted by TMIA on Thu, 03/26/2009 - 21:21Accident Dose Assessments
Nuclear engineer and long-time industry executive, Arnie Gundersen gives a talk on his calculations of the amount of radiation released during the accident at Three Mile Island. Mr. Gundersen's calculations differ from those of the NRC's and official industry estimates.
Three Decades After Accident, Resident Remains in Pursuit of Truth
Submitted by webEditor on Wed, 03/25/2009 - 17:03
By Marlene Lang
Mary Osborn Ouassiai still calls it home. Her house behind the WITF television station building in Swatara Township, Dauphin County, Pa., overlooks a valley that slopes down several miles toward the Susquehanna River.
She can see the cooling towers on Three Mile Island from her driveway; the same driveway she walked across on March 28, 1979 to put her 9-year-old daughter on the school bus. She looks out the same windows she looked out of that day, and the days following, holding her son, 2, and wondering if her family and neighbors were being told the truth about the danger to which they had been exposed.
U.S. Senate Hearing on “Three Mile Island: Thirty Years of Lessons Learned”
Submitted by webEditor on Tue, 03/24/2009 - 14:40Testimony of Peter A. Bradford
Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety
March 24, 2009
I’d like to begin with a review of the status of nuclear power and nuclear regulation the day before the
accident at Three Mile Island. As of that time, the NRC’s licensing process, maligned though it often was,
had issued more licenses than the next five nations combined, though half of the construction permit
recipients did not complete their power plants.
