![]() Later that day, radiation was vented into the air. So the reactor continued to heat up and, with no coolant available, the core was exposed, causing major damage. More water was pumped into the reactor, but because of the malfunctioning instrumentation, nobody knew the valve was still open, meaning the water was going right back out. As alarms rang and warning lights flashed, the operators did not realize that the plant was experiencing a loss-of-coolant accident." ![]() As a result, according to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC), "the plant staff was unaware that cooling water in the form of steam was pouring out of the stuck-open valve. Except the valve never did close, despite the instrumentation in the control room reporting otherwise. To reduce the pressure and heat building within the reactor, a valve was opened to vent steam, then closed once the temperature within the reactor returned to a safe level. on March 28, 1979, a relatively minor malfunction occurred in the non-nuclear part of the plant when a feedwater pump failed to send water to the steam generator, which prompted both the turbine generator and the TMI-2 reactor itself to automatically shut down as a built-in safety precaution-a process that occurred in about one second. The disaster unfolded in a matter of seconds.Īt approximately 4 a.m. It was subject to unscheduled shutdowns due to leaks, and following the accident it was revealed that managers had deliberately falsified data about the reactor in order to keep the plant operational. From the very beginning, the TMI-2 reactor, where the accident would shortly occur, was problematic. Both units were pressurized water reactors, which rely on feedwater pumps to send pressurized water to a steam generator, which then acts as the reactor's primary coolant. TMI-1 went online in 1974 TMI-2 began operating in 1978. Construction on Three Mile Island's second nuclear reactor, TMI-2, began more than a year later, on November 1, 1969. There were two nuclear reactors on Three Mile Island.Ĭonstruction began on Three Mile Island's first nuclear reactor, TMI-1, on May 18, 1968-a full decade after America's first commercial nuclear plant, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, opened in western Pennsylvania, just about 250 miles west of Three Mile Island. ![]() With that in mind, here are some important facts to know about the Three Mile Island accident.
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