Nuclear Final

When: 4 am Wednesday March 28 28th 1979

Where: Middletown PA Three Mile Island Unit 2
What/How: equipment malfunctions followed by design related
problems with worker errors

Who: workers, PA, NRC

So What: aftermath brought changes involving emergency response
planning, reactor operator training, human factors engineering,
radiation protection and many other areas of nuclear power plant
operation. Made the NRC tighten and heighten its regulatory oversight.
This incident significantly enhanced IS reactor safety.
At four am on March 28th 1979 the Three Mile Island Unit 2
section of the nuclear power plant had a mechanical or electrical
failure. This failure made it so that no water was sent to the steam
generator; therefore, it was not cooling. This triggered the reactor and
turbine to shut down. Once this was done a large amount of pressure
built up which triggered a valve to open to release the pressure. The
valve opened, but it did not close when proper pressure was reached.
While this was happening, however, the control room did not have an
indication that the valve was still open. Thus, cooling water was still
flowing out of the open valve while the workers were unaware. At the
time, there was not instrument that showed how much water covered
the core reactor. The next big mistake was that the staff ASSUMED
(never assume) that since the pressure read high that there was
enough water covering the reactor. But since water was still pouring
out of the valve the plant was actually experiencing a loss of coolant
accident as well. The staff them made the situation worse. The stuck
valve reduced the pressure so much that the reactor core pumps had
to be turned off to prevent dangerous vibrations. Then to prevent the
pressurizer from filling up completely, the staff reduces the emergency
coolant water. This did not give the reactor core enough coolant
therefore it overheated. Over half of the core was found to be melted.
This incident brought about many changes in the nuclear industry.
Safety and emergency response were huge changes. Emergency
response planning, reactor operator training, human factors
engineering, radiation protection and many other areas of nuclear
power plant operation. This incident also made the NRC tighten and

heighten its regulatory oversight. This incident significantly enhanced

reactor safety.