{"id":7759,"date":"2017-06-07T18:57:54","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T22:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=7759"},"modified":"2017-10-25T16:42:32","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T20:42:32","slug":"three-mile-island-nuclear-energy-history-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2017\/06\/07\/three-mile-island-nuclear-energy-history-closure\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Mile Island’s invisible threat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"This <\/a>
This 1972 photo shows the Three Mile Island plant during construction of the cooling towers for TMI Unit 2 (right). This unit would be the site of a partial meltdown and shut down in 1978, while TMI Unit 1 (left) reopened in 1985 and will remain operational through 2019. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A Nuclear Regulatory Commission helicopter flies past the cooling towers of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, checking radiation levels just hours after technical malfunctions were first reported. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"President <\/a>
President Jimmy Carter (center, front) tours the control room of the Three Mile Island plant April 1, 1979, one week after the accident occurred. Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh (center, rear) and Dr. Harold Denton, Director of the U.S. Nuclear Agency, joined Carter and several unidentified plant employees. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Just hours after learning about a technical malfunction at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Center, Middletown Mayor Robert Reid described citizens as unconcerned.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI went into a local diner where everyone congregates, and nobody was talking about it,\u201d Reid told The Pittsburgh Press<\/a> on March 28, 1979.<\/span><\/p>\n

That silence wouldn\u2019t last long. Within three days, one-quarter of the area\u2019s 950,000 residents had voluntarily evacuated their homes, fleeing the invisible threat of leaked radiation and taking refuge at a relief center in Hershey Arena.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Three Mile Island plant\u2019s current owner has recently announced it will cease operations in 2019, so we dug into our archives to revisit the largest nuclear power accident in the country\u2019s history, 38 years later.<\/span><\/p>\n

Around 4:30 a.m. on March 28, operators were struggling to clear a blocked filter in one of the plant\u2019s tw<\/span>o reactors when misdirected water triggered an emergency shutdown of the reactor\u2019s coolant pumps.<\/span><\/p>\n

This set off a series of mechanical failures that culminated with the automatic shutdown of all heat removal systems, and rising temperatures left the reactor\u2019s core partially disintegrated.<\/span><\/p>\n

Human error dramatically escalated the situation when operators misunderstood how and when to activate the reactor\u2019s manually operated relief valve. Radioactive coolant began to leak from the valve, which had become stuck open, but that did not become clear to employees for nearly three hours after the initial problem began.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Chris <\/a>
Chris Becker, a dairy farmer who lived only a mile from the disabled Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, is scanned for radiation during a test in Middletown, Pa. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Holly <\/a>
Holly Garnish, 32, of Middletown, Pa., holds detectors placed in her shrubs by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Garnish\u2019s home was the closest of all area residents to the Three Mile Island plant. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The final container of radioactive waste is transported from the Three Mile Island plant April 3, 1979, headed for the U.S. Department of Energy facility in Richland, Wash. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The Three Mile Island incident ultimately resulted in very little radioactive exposure to local residents. On average, people in the area were exposed to roughly 1.5 millirems (mrems), a measure estimating the biological effects of radiation exposure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In comparison, a chest X-ray exposes patients to about 3.2 mrem. However, officials had an incomplete understanding of the danger posed and badly mismanaged the escalating media barrage.<\/p>\n

Then-Pennsylvania Gov. Dick Thornburgh held a press conference two days after the accident to advise pregnant women and preschool children that they should evacuate Middletown. Everybody else was told to remain indoors as much as possible. To this day, there are disagreements over whether those announcements created unnecessary panic and conflicting accusations over who recommended particular courses of action.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very frightened,\u201d said evacuee Judith Ebersol of Falmouth, Pa. the Saturday following the accident, according to The Pittsburgh Press<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m wondering if what happened is really worse than what they\u2019ve been saying. I feel we\u2019ve been lied to and I don\u2019t trust the reports.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An <\/a>
An employee of the Three Mile Island plant wears a containment mask as he leaves the facility. This photo was taken two days after the accident, soon after the reactor\u2019s coolant leak was officially identified. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
A Three Mile Island employee enters the facility wearing one of the metal decontamination suits personnel had to wear when working near the crippled reactor. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Evacuees <\/a>
Evacuees from the area surrounding Three Mile Island watch news updates at the Hershey Sports Arena. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Despite the government\u2019s bungled response, however, some citizens remained unfazed by the accident. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s very serious, and I think they should repair the plant and put it back into operating order,\u201d one unnamed Harrisburg resident told The Pittsburgh Press<\/a> three days after the accident. \u201cThis country can\u2019t exist without nuclear power.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Only one of the plant\u2019s reactors was damaged during the meltdown, and then-owners Metropolitan Edison decided to reactivate the functional reactor in 1985. That decision drew massive backlash from lawmakers and the public, inspiring the protesters seen here and many others around the world. Some activists even called for the plant to be converted into a park.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"This <\/a>
This diagram shows artist Jay Critchley\u2019s plan for a park to be built in the uncontaminated section of Three Mile Island. The park would have included a shopping plaza, which Critchley named the \u201cMeltdown Mall,\u201d and a museum about nuclear power. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"An <\/a>
An anti-Three Mile Island protestor blocking the front gate of the plant is carried away by state police and arrested near Middletown, Pa. Demonstrators were protesting the Nuclear Regulatory Commission\u2019s 1985 decision to restart the undamaged TMI Unit 1 reactor. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Two <\/a>
Two protestors wear gas masks while attending a 1989 anti-Three Mile Island rally on the 10th anniversary of the accident. In the background, steam rises from the undamaged, restarted Unit 1 facility. (Associated Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe all live in Pennsylvania,\u201d German protesters chanted when the accident occurred, according to the Associated Press<\/a>. Those chants were renewed upon the plant’s reopening.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
A family fishes on the Susquehanna River near Middletown, Pa. in March 1984, the fifth anniversary of the Three Mile Island accident. (Associated Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The accident would prove to be a turning point for the country\u2019s energy policies. Prior to 1979, nuclear energy was hailed as the gateway to a clean energy future. But that growth stopped almost immediately following the Three Mile Island debacle. The number of reactors under construction in the U.S. declined every year from 1980 through 1998, and authorizations to build new nuclear plants halted completely until 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though the ultimate fate of the Three Mile Island facility is unknown, the crisis that consumed it remains a defining moment of the 1970s and the nation\u2019s fight over how best to harness the atom.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Moret<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just hours after learning about a technical malfunction at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating…<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesThree Mile Island’s invisible threat<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":7768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[948,945],"tags":[963,980],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/3mi7007.jpg?fit=3775%2C2123&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1690,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/06\/14\/the-great-allegheny-passage-in-the-making\/","url_meta":{"origin":7759,"position":0},"title":"The Great Allegheny Passage in the making","date":"June 14, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"It took almost four decades to build what now is known as the Great Allegheny Passage.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/tumblr_mocztqrnKE1rr5swxo8_r1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C917&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2132,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/01\/18\/the-first-inauguration-of-barack-obama\/","url_meta":{"origin":7759,"position":1},"title":"The first inauguration of Barack Obama","date":"January 18, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"In January 2008, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette photographer Michael Henninger walked a mile, cleared at least three security checkpoints and stood outside for six hours in frigid air.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/tumblr_mgsdrnymUm1rr5swxo1_1280-e1418791903719.jpg?fit=1074%2C567&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":535,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/06\/23\/the-freedom-trains-journey-through-pennsylvania\/","url_meta":{"origin":7759,"position":2},"title":"The Freedom Train\u2019s journey through Pennsylvania","date":"June 23, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Fifty-two railroads shared the task of taking the Freedom Train on its 33,000-mile journey.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/tumblr_n7dqfdKlMq1rr5swxo4_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C969&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2652,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/08\/09\/circa-1920-the-1877-point-bridge-monangahela\/","url_meta":{"origin":7759,"position":3},"title":"1877 Point Bridge across the Mon","date":"August 9, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Fascinating history of the Point Bridge","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/tumblr_m8gl2rfIwy1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C806&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":509,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/06\/30\/the-hotel-that-transformed-the-point\/","url_meta":{"origin":7759,"position":4},"title":"The hotel that transformed the Point","date":"June 30, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"More than half a century ago, the hotel was known as the Hilton.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/tumblr_n7t2gaIdpe1rr5swxo7_r1_1280.jpg?fit=1080%2C826&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1818,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/05\/06\/gen-matthew-b-ridgway-and-his-career\/","url_meta":{"origin":7759,"position":5},"title":"Gen. 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