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Three Mile Island’s license renewed for 20 years
November 11th, 2009, 5:00 am · 7 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
Readers of a certain level of maturity will find it interesting that Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station’s operating license has been extended for 20 years.
In 1979, a reactor at Three Mile Island suffered a partial core meltdown - the most serious accident in the history of American commercial nuclear power. Radioactive gases were released into the atmosphere, including the particularly dangerous iodine-131. Officials say it wasn’t enough to cause additional cancers, but at least one rigorous scientific study says the impact was much greater.
That accident, however, was in reactor Unit 2. The license has been extended for reactor Unit 1. It will expire in 2034, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says.
Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island accident essentially halted the construction of nuclear power plants in America for a generation. It happened just days after the release of the thriller ”The China Syndrome,” which tells the story of a reporter and cameraman who uncover serious safety cover-ups at a nuclear power plant. An accident, whispers a character in the film, could render “an area the size of Pennsylvania” permanently uninhabitable; a core meltdown could essentially burn clear through the Earth to, well, China.
When actor Michael Douglas appeared on ”The Tonight Show“ after the accident, Johnny Carson quipped, ”Boy, you sure have one hell of a publicity agent.”
The NRC anticipated such reminiscences. 
“The decision to renew the license comes after thorough safety and environmental reviews of the application submitted Jan. 8, 2008, by the plant’s owner and operator, Exelon Generation Group, LLC,” its news release says. “(A)fter careful review of the plant’s safety systems and specifications, the staff concluded that there were no safety concerns that would preclude license renewal and that the applicant had effectively demonstrated the capability to manage the effects of plant aging.” (Read the NRC’s statement here: three-mile-island-renewal.)
The accident, the NRC says, was caused by a combination of personnel error, design deficiencies, and component failures. “There is no doubt that the accident at Three Mile Island permanently changed both the nuclear industry and the NRC,” its summary of the accident says. “Public fear and distrust increased, NRC’s regulations and oversight became broader and more robust, and management of the plants was scrutinized more carefully. The problems identified from careful analysis of the events during those days have led to permanent and sweeping changes in how NRC regulates its licensees - which, in turn, has reduced the risk to public health and safety.”
The operators of our own San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station are expected to pursue a license extension as well. Its two reactors are licensed through 2022, so an extension would keep them operating through 2042.
Times sure do change, don’t they! Dozens of new reactors are on the drawing boards in the United States, and President Obama’s administration says that nuclear energy is a key to a clean, green future.
More on nuclear power:
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What a joke—-nuke power is unsafe
Can’t watch this movie. I’m just not Fonda Jane…… Oh, well. It’s probably not that good anyway.
Although I am not afraid of nuclear power plants in general I do think California is not the place for them because of seismic issues. While we
have some idea of the fault lines and potential earthquakes I don’t believe that knowledge is complete. Wasn’t the Northridge quake on a previously undetected fault?
That said, shutting down San Onofre or Diablo Canyon is just not feasible for the foreseeable future. If California is to have more nuclear power plants might the solution be to place them offshore on ships where seismic forces wouldn’t be an issue and , if worse came to worse,
they could be moved out to sea.
The only joke is with public understanding. Japan had atomic bombs dropped on them yet site reactors all across their tiny island. Chernobyl, Ukraine operated the three other working reactors until late 2000. And even across the former USSR, many copies of the Chernobyl plant continue to operate without containment and with only a few critical safety enhancements.
Here in America, citizens with zero negative effects from the nuclear fission power generation industry consider continuing operation a joke (only for sake of my point I’m considering native people in America, who ARE affected by uranium mining, citizens of their respective nations).
We really need compulsory education in nuclear technology so kids can silence their parents idiotic rantings or America could slip from #1 once again.
Good point, Earle.
People should also note that each coal plant puts more radioactivity into the air than all the Nuc plants combined.
And that doesn’t count all the CO2, hydrocarbons, etc. they put in our air.
And let’s talk about the effects of strip mining.
France has the right model: a closed-loop nuclear energy cycle. Old nuc fuel is recycled in a fast-breeder phoenix reactor and then used again to generate power. It’s almost like free power.
Speaking of which, Nuc power is the cheapest per kilowatt-hour.
Far cheaper than wind or solar (sadly).
If solar cells and batteries ever increase in efficiency and decrease in price by a few factors of magnitude, they may come into the equation.
Radiation Leak Investigated At Three Mile Island
Sun Nov 22, 2009
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE5AM05B20091123
That’s exactly the kind of news that inspires irrational fear of nuclear power. The guy that received the most dose got the equivalent of radiation what one would get if he spent all day in the sun.