Everything That Went Wrong on 3-Mile Island

Three Mile Island is a nuclear power plant located in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, on the eastern side of the state. It was the site of the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown, which occurred on the morning of May 28, 1979. Although no one outside of the plant was harmed, the workers inside were exposed to high levels of radiation, and the public became worried that nuclear power was unsafe.

The story of Three Mile Island shows that nuclear incidents can be prevented, as long as the right safety measures are in place and the employees are trained properly. What happened on Three Mile Island was small in comparison to the Fukushima Disaster in Japan or the Chernobyl Incident in Russia. However, it still serves as a cautionary tale about how small mistakes and errors in judgment can add up to major disasters.

#3MileIsland #NuclearDisaster #WeirdHsitory

[amaccama]

I can't help but think of the Simpson's episode where Homer is congratulated for saving the plant by " turning a possible Chernobyl into a mere 3 Mile Island " by Mr Burns.

[edgabel]

So the problem isn’t so much nuclear power, but the competence and integrity of the people who build and run it. Many nuclear power plants function perfectly well and, of course, we never hear about them. No incident, no story.

[puresunshine]

I have to point out that this happened in March of 1979 not May. Love your channel sir and thanks for sharing. ❤

[drewsmotherinlaw]

I live about 40 minutes from 3 Mile Island, and despite hearing about it all my life when we drive by, my mom still tells me about it when we drive by.

[ryanparrott]

I think nuclear plants like this have great potential, as long as the necessary precautions are taken and people aren't cutting corners. There's a power plant located in Byron, Illinois that I love to drive to just to look at. Their towers are about 400 feet tall, and there's a road that runs right up next to the fence so you can get a good look. Just seeing the massive structures in person gives me great appreciation for them and the clean energy they can provide.

[kpes]

At least they learned from there mistakes this led to the creation of IAEA and the second plant at 3 mile Island went on to lead the world in quality and safe operation.

[Lethgar_Smith]

The image shown at the 0:11 second mark is not Fukushima although it is often confused with Fukushima. It is a picture of an oil refinery fire in Chiba city, Chiba prefecture Japan on the same day as the Fukushima disaster and caused by the same Earthquake but it IS NOT a nuclear power plant you see in this picture

[chrissyknowsitall]

I was 9 when this happened and I still remember it. I love this channel.

[Foof]

Well at 3:08 you lost all credibility when you said the core going critical was part of a bad chain of events. I'm a former nuclear reactor operator for the US Navy. Criticality is a good thing. Criticality is stable. You have an average of 2.43 neutrons released per fission. Criticality is when for every fission at least one of those released continues on to cause another fission. Less than 1 on average is sub critical and greater than 1 on average is super critical. Prompt criticality is reaching criticality with prompt neutrons only, otherwise known as instantaneously released neutrons. Delayed neutrons take longer to release, in the millisecond range and can cause more criticality and thus prompt criticality is dangerous and difficult if not impossible to control a runaway criticality.

When the core is operating normally with a negative temperature coefficient, as the water heats up the plant power will reduce causing water to cool and thus power increases. Withdrawal of the rods with no way to pump hot water from the core can lead to excessive heating at power, but insertion of rods or even full shutdown or scram can cause the plant to stabilize with proper cooling flow for the lower power to remove decay heat.

Anyways I'm getting too far past your ignorant statement of criticality being a bad thing and thus the furthering of ignorance in the world about nuclear power leading to a fearful public and thus the loss of the expansion of nuclear power as a clean replacement of power that is more sustainable than wind or solar.

Please reeducate yourself concerning terminology and the actual process of power generation in this field.

[Moonmaidenfairy]

I was 6 years old when this happened. We had to evacuate and go stay at my aunt’s house a few hours away. Thankfully I didn’t fully grasp what was going on at the time. Check and double check

[tremorsfan]

Just for the record: That image at 7:00 is the Elephant Foot from Chernobyl not 3 mile island.

[aidenharris]

I’m from the Harrisburg area and I’ve always found the plant unsettling. The area has never forgotten the accident, it’s featured on the local news each year on the anniversary of the accident; and up until the Plant closed, it was common to hear about TMI Core Meltdown Siren system testing happening in Middletown-the closest town to the plant. Its hard to not find the plant unsettling after finding all of this out.

[Foof]

When talking about the meltdown, you gave the melting temperature of the zirconium fuel rods. That is wrong on your part. The fuel rods themselves are not what melt during a meltdown. A meltdown is considered when the fuel itself melts, which is about 2k F, for U235 and about 1300 F less than the zirconium structure metal. The rods also consist of poisons such as hafnium and others that are burnable and not zoned throughout the rods to make for a more evenly distributed fuel. At the start of core life there is no xenon in the core, poison (poisons soak up neutrons), from fission decay byproducts and thus nothing to help preclude reactivity. At core start with no poisons a miniscule withdrawal of controls rods would cause instant reactivity and make for a wildly uncontrollable core. They zone poisons through the rods to allow for more control. Think of either having a lighter as opposed to a flame thrower to light a candle. Meltdown occurs when fission products begin to be uncovered and air is the heat transfer medium which is not as efficient as fluid and thus heat compounds and the fuel melts, not necessarily the actual framework of the rods.

[mmcfreds]

The word critical, when referring to nuclear reactors, is not a bad thing. It is in fact the normal mode of operation and means that reactor power is not changing.

[medusagorgo]

I was a child when this happened, I remember my family talking about it and the movie “the China syndrome “. I remember being inconsolable about the whole situation and the threat of nuclear war was a real possibility at the time. This threat of war was hugely influential on me and my generation. A sort of impending doom hung over us generation x people.

[loisreese]

I live just across the Susquehanna River from Harrisburg. I didn't live here at the time of the meltdown, but my bff's husband lived about 10-15 miles away from TMI. He was outside playing that day, and it seems everyone pretty much shrugged it off because Thornburg was not forthcoming about the dangers people faced.

[jjwallnutts]

This taught me something, when they say pregnant woman and children should evacuate up to 5 miles…I’m going with them.

[larrybraham]

Nuclear power is one hell of a way to boil water. — Albert Einstein

I agree.

[queenemma]

So weird and also so cool to hear this channel talking about the area I grew up in (I’m from a small town less than a mile outside of Harrisburg). I’ve driven past TMI many times in my life; it’s crazy to think this happened outside our little city.

[mikatu]

The problem was never the power plant, the problem was having Homer Simpson in the control room!