The nuclear nightmare that almost took
out the East Coast
New York Post,
by
Alex Mitchell
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
5/5/2022 3:38:08 AM
The 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown in central Pennsylvania was and remains the worst accident of its kind in the United States, but, as a new documentary shows, it could have been so much worse.In the four-part Netflix docuseries “Meltdown: Three Mile Island,” which debuted Wednesday, May 4, Rick Parks — a former leading engineer at the facility — reveals how cover-ups, falsifications of safety tests and downright dangerous corner-cutting caused the terrifying nuclear event and could have potentially triggered a second, bigger one that would have affected a huge chunk of the Eastern Seaboard.What Parks found risked America being on “the verge of an apocalypse”
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Island Life 5/5/2022 4:03:29 AM (No. 1146900)
Let's remember this. That when a President, who is more knowledgeable on nuclear power than the masses, visits such a facility and announces that there is nothing for us to be concerned about, let's be concerned.
6 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Rich323 5/5/2022 5:46:00 AM (No. 1146933)
Notice how the big disasters always happen under a Democrat president, in this case Jimma Carter the worst president until Obama Biden. Clinton created 911 by allowing bin laden to form alqaeda and dumped it on Bush.
13 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
F15 Gork 5/5/2022 6:16:00 AM (No. 1146951)
Philly, NYC and DC.....one can dream can’t they.
14 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 5/5/2022 6:54:02 AM (No. 1146969)
Three Mile Island?
Gee - - I just cant wait to - - - - zzzZZZZZ - - zzzzzz - - ZZZZZzzzz - - - - - - - -
15 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Goose 5/5/2022 7:00:21 AM (No. 1146973)
Reminder: More people died in cars driven by Ted Kennedy than at Three Mile Island.
49 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
frew 5/5/2022 7:02:41 AM (No. 1146974)
Now that it's becoming clear that nuclear is they only way to provide dependable, cheap, emissions free energy, and support for it is increasing, we get this sort of fear mongering again.
3 Mile Island was an old design with problems that do not apply to reactors being built now. None of the reactors with newer designs have had any problems.
30 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Red Jeep 5/5/2022 7:22:45 AM (No. 1146982)
Never mentioned whenever nuclear energy is discussed is that France has relied on nuclear energy for power for over 40 years with 56 active nuclear reactors...hmmmm...
30 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
hershey 5/5/2022 7:24:44 AM (No. 1146984)
They should do a new series, Meltdown: The Demise of The Democratic Party...
13 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
BarryNo 5/5/2022 7:52:43 AM (No. 1147004)
I used to design piping systems for nuke sites. Our problem was the blue collar construction crews always felt they "knew better" than the engineers. We'd design something and the guys putting it together would say, "We don't need to do that..."
My Deptartment head was sent out to a construction site to review the work in progress. In checking the feed for the coolant system, a water pipe roughly 5' in diameter, they used a handheld sonar gun to look for faults in hug bolts clamping the line to the floor, which was made of massive steel plates. Along one section, the bolts had very odd readings so they decided to unscrew one to examine.
After 4 ppeople put their back on the 6' long wrench to 'break it free' all were sent sprawling when the head suddenly broke off... not quite.
All the steel plate flooring was prefabbed with the holes for the bolts predrilled. This section of flooring had been installed upside down, which put the holes, elsewhere. Instead of dealing with this by having new holes drilled or taking the plate out and reversing it, they cut the heads off the bolts and spot welded them into place on the pipe anchors. To them, that was "good enough".
23 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Strike3 5/5/2022 8:06:19 AM (No. 1147021)
Given the prevailing wind, the accident would have made New York and New Jersey uninhabitable 43 years earlier. I don't see the problem.
12 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
hisself 5/5/2022 8:08:12 AM (No. 1147023)
As a counterpoint to #9: I worked as a Quality Engineer, Civil Engineer, Shift Engineer, and Startup Engineer in many different nuclear plants. We used to have to redraw the piping systems because the pipe spools were designed by "engineers" or designers/draftsmen who had no clue as to what was required to install them in the real world.
As regards Three Mile Island, there was never any danger to the East Coast. That was media BS!!
If it is in the media, it is probably wrong!
21 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
BarryNo 5/5/2022 8:08:19 AM (No. 1147024)
Nuke plants are designed to be picked up like a dog's toy and shaken vigorously. The end result may not be quite so strong due to unplanned "design changes". The inspection process the design team is required to do fixes most of these issues, but I expect a few make it through.
When you're doing nukes it should NEVER be left up to the lowest bidders.
7 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
swarfer 5/5/2022 8:10:41 AM (No. 1147026)
TMI has been studied extensively and all nuclear operations, engineering and technical personnel are trained on this event including me. There was no danger to the public even though the reactor core was half melted. The containment building contained the mess and electrical power was available for running long term cooling pumps. Operators did not recognize the pressure control implications of a very small stuck open valve. All training up to that time was based on a major pipe failure. Fukushima was the result of no electrical power available to run long term cooling pumps due to the massive earthquake and tsunami and infrastructure damage. Chernobyl was due to a dangerous test procedure and no containment. Lots of things were done or not done, but in the end the overall design did what it was designed to do, protect the public. Massive changes in all aspects of the industry were instituted to eliminate all the “what ifs.”
19 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
red1066 5/5/2022 8:26:25 AM (No. 1147046)
When my son was in the Boy Scouts, one of the trails we hiked took us through the three mile island property. About two weeks before the hike, anyone going had to submit personal information and provide an ID to be allowed on the property. Emerging from the woods that surrounded the plant, we were greeted by security personnel and more cameras than we could count. There were no signs indicating that the facility was three mile island nuke plant. We were directed to a spot where we could stop and eat lunch before moving on. Sitting under the trees eating our lunch and looking at the cooling towers knowing what almost happened here was kind of strange and thrilling at the same time.
5 people like this.
TMI was nothing in the large scope of things like Chernobyl and Japan. We need to concentrate on what happened and what could have happened.
4 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Urgent Fury 5/5/2022 8:43:54 AM (No. 1147068)
Please. I grew up in the area. We didn't even miss any school.
12 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Jethro bo 5/5/2022 8:59:45 AM (No. 1147086)
All I remember about Three Mile Island is more people died in the backseat of Teddy Kennedy's car than all of Three Mile Island. So the score in my lifetime is Nuclear disaster 0, Dead blondes in Dem Senator's car, 1
14 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
bigfatslob 5/5/2022 9:18:36 AM (No. 1147099)
Netflix four part disaster series about Three Mile Island we already know the whole story. Leftist Netflix presents a series to fear monger the people because the democrats are melting down like Three Mile Island. What's the next apocalyptic disaster from Netflix Acid Rain?
8 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
BarryNo 5/5/2022 9:57:27 AM (No. 1147151)
No argument from me, No. 11. I had more than my share of experience cleaning up after cretins like that on my side of the design. Being the checker on another Engineer's designs can be hair raising. Points on a cad screen don't account for physical dimensions. That was part of my job - to pull out the specs on the equipment to make sure there was enough clearance for devices needed to protect the piping system.
And procurement was often substituting equipment with similar properties but wildly different physical dimensions, or durability. I know some stuff got past me. Glad to have someone on your side to catch what did.
It still irritates me after all these decades that there were some installers to whom everything was a steam pipe, though.
4 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
JackBurton 5/5/2022 10:00:34 AM (No. 1147153)
Regarding the problems with Fukashima and this one, TMI: My understanding is that all U.S. nukes have been retrofitted so that when the power goes down, the rods/nuclear material is disengaged so that reaction stops. Think of it as a screen door with an automatic closer. It only stays open if you are holding it open. Once your.... power... is removed, it shuts. Result: No uncontrolled reactions/meltdowns.
Further, a sci fi writer in the mid 90s pointed out that all the pumps, and that's plural because they had redundant cooling pumps, pumped water UP to the reactor core. This was the problem with Fukashima. Why not have a coolant (water) supply higher than the core so that gravity would 'pump' it? I understand that this is the new standard for our plants.
Basically, we're doing nukes correctly now. Bringing up the old horror stories is...wrong.
4 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 5/5/2022 10:05:49 AM (No. 1147159)
Netflix is in such a bad way as a company that they need to dig back into the last 70's to pump up an old leftist melodrama of TMI to force us to all embrace "sustainable" "green" energy. Our enemies at "Club Sierra" must have funded this production to whip up snowflake fear of nuclear power. Most GenZ's don't even know what nuclear power is, or how it works.
On a positive note regarding TMI, as a result of this, Fault Safety Hazard Analyses are now required for aircraft, as well as nuclear plants, and while such Engineering analyses won't prevent all accidents, they have made airline travel much safer with new aircraft introduced since the 1980's. These are large "Fault Trees" that will follow every fault that can occur with large systems following the logical progression to determine the final result and whether it can lead to a catastrophic event, such as loss of control of the aircraft. That was all the result of the "chain of errors" that took place on TMI that fateful day.
TMI, which never killed a single person on the ground, has saved tens of thousands of lives in the air.
5 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 5/5/2022 10:15:24 AM (No. 1147167)
On a different note, the picture of Jimmy Carter touring TMI while wearing yellow rubber booties probably didn't help his re-election chances. Reminds me of John Kerry in his powder blue bunny suit.
2 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
Axeman 5/5/2022 10:20:57 AM (No. 1147171)
In The Wizard of Oz, when Toto pulls back the curtain and reveals the man pulling the levers, this is the literal meaning of "apocalypse". We have these events often.
The final battle is Armageddon. Things will be sorted out then.
I think there are a lot of people desperately clutching the curtains closed, waving their hands, saying "Nothing to see here, look, Russia!" We are seeing through the curtains.
Another example of an apocalypse is the lights shining on the cockroaches. Armageddon is the boot or the spray. The cockroaches are not in favor of this.
Thee will be no speculating about it when the final battle begins. It won't be from a power plant.
3 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
columba 5/5/2022 11:46:07 AM (No. 1147303)
I could have been this, it could have been that.
The writer's imagination is out of control.
2 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
DVC 5/5/2022 1:25:00 PM (No. 1147441)
Anti-nuclear, leftist propaganda. Always the Enemedia pumps the lies about nuclear accidents, like the did for Fukishima, and still do.
I was in Baltimore visiting a friend who was a post grad at Johns Hopkins, during the Three Mile Island event so I paid close attention. I happen to know a good bit about nuclear reactors, their designs and how they work. I also predicted to my wife and friends that there would be the hydrogen-oxygen explosion about 6-10 hours before it happened, because I am aware that high temperature zirconium catalyzes the splitting of water into it's component hydrogen and oxygen, which are then ready to recombine in a small chemical explosion inside the containment vessel. And the fuel rods are clad with pure zirconium.
Very little radiation was released, and nobody was harmed. The release was mostly some gases to reduce the pressures inside the containment vessel. Other than a small amount of intentionally vented radioactive gases, rapidly dispersed by the winds, no radioactive material was released from the Three Mile Island event.
By comparison, a natural gas fired power plant just NE of the KC metro area exploded about 20 years ago, killing every person on site and leveling the site's main buildings. IIRC, 6-10 people killed. It made almost zero national news impact. But an nuclear accident with NO DEATHS at all are huge news for decades in the anti-nuclear press. I believe it is still accurate to say that more people have died in Ted Kennedy's car than in all the nuclear reactor accidents in the USA.
4 people like this.
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