Three Mile Island, Nuclear Power Plant Accident: March 28, 1979

The Chernobyl disaster 7 years later made 3 Mile Island look no more serious than putting a potato in the microwave for too long.

only 3.6 roentgen, I'm told its the equivalent of a chest x ray

the accident probably happened because some idiot tought itd be a good idea to install a CHRISTMAS TREE in the cooling area 3:28

good boy Mike Janowski, way to be a company man. "Didn't see anything didn't hear anything..."

Not to downplay this accident, but overall, Nuclear accidents are extremely rare. Also, Globally our rejection of Nuclear power was a massive mistake, and the environment has payed dearly for it as we continue to rely on fossil fuels for our electricity.

In the early 1980's I was a 24 year old technical sales rep for Air Products & Chemicals who called on Three Mile Island. Gas companies like mine did not make money on the gases in cylinders but rather on the rental charges on the cylinders. Three Mile Island had run up an enormous rental charge on cylinders from the time of the nuclear problem 4 years earlier and I was sent there to get a count of all the cylinders. On our books there were over 3000 cylinders suppose to be on the island but as we walked the place I realized that they could account for only 300. 2700 cylinders were missing and it was impossible for more than a 100 cylinders to be in the closed containment building where the nuclear problem occurred. So where did the 2700 cylinder go? After talking to a guy who had worked there for 10 years he confessed that workers would use the cylinders for a period of time until they got down to about 1000 psi and then take them to the edge of the 50 ft. cliff overlooking the river. They would then lay them across railroad pilings and knock the value heads off with sledgehammers shooting the 200 lbs. cylinders out over and into the river. So during the 4 year since the meltdown an average of 2 cylinders a day were shot out into the Susquehanna. Left, went back to my office and billed them $100 a cylinder, $270000 total. They ended up paying $100000. This was the mentality of some of the workers at the plant.

3 mile island was recently closed, what’s cool is that I live very close to 3 mile island in camp hill, right across the Susquehanna river from Harrisburg

A little more The reactor at Three Mile Island (1979) The reactor was a so-called light water reactor of a relatively early design. As a natural thing it was protected by a reactor containment.  Such a reactor containment, which is usually a ca. 2 meters thick reinforced concrete shell, is the last defense against release of radioactive contamination. Here it proved to serve its purpose in such a way that people within a radius of 15 km from the reactor were exposed to an average dose of 8 millirem (0.08 mSv). Highest measured dose was 100 millirem (1 mSv). This should be seen in the context of the natural background radiation we are all exposed to, about 200 millirem (2-3 mSv) per year. Such a core meltdown can under no circumstances evolve into just something like a "nuclear explosion". This will require both highly enriched uranium and a very special "initiator".  Yet it was not long before half the US population had become convinced that such a threat had been imminent. A small crowd of journalists, who perhaps had waited some horror stories, thus had to go home disappointed.

I like how they used to have fake typewriter sound effects during the news broadcasts.

Lol that black reporter reminds me of Cleveland from Family Guy

Thanks for posting. I know that during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, residents of SC & GA recall the Savannah River Plant being a potential target.

This animation was very clear and informative. I appreciate the direct and clear-cut explanation of the nuclear reactor failure.

All this talk bout Turbins, and I see no hats

i was a kid down the road from this it happened in my hometown i was 14 years old they released radiation in the air , at school their way of dealing with it was to keep the windows closed and turn off the climate control, or rather air coming inside the school from outside.

Wow!  The media talked about crap they didn't know about then just as they do today.

Very informative reporting, helpful

The news footage was surprisingly clear...

Chernobyl: You call that a meltdown? Hold my beer...

So in other words, the TMI incident was little more than a giant radioactive fart?

"the plant did exactly what it was supposed to do" lol it was a partial meltdown