This is an excellent and engaging account of the accident. The graphics are helpful, too.
Regarding the highlighted takeaway: "“Even in a situation where the operators shut down the emergency core cooling system, we melt 60% of the core, we detonate hydrogen within the containment building... that system prevented any meaningful public health consequences to either the general public or the operators of the plant, which is why Three Mile Island is one of the greatest arguments you have for nuclear safety." — James Krellenstein"
I get the point of this takeaway, but I wonder if you have thought about the difference between what the releases would be for a clean shiny spanking new plant like TMI 2 at the time of the accident, versus what they would be for plants that have aged for awhile. TMI 2 hadn't even been in commercial operation for a few months before this accident happened, so the reactor wasn't embrittled, none of the Steam Generator tubes leaked, and there probably weren't cracks or corrosion anywhere. That wouldn't have been the case for an older plant.
This is an excellent and engaging account of the accident. The graphics are helpful, too.
Regarding the highlighted takeaway: "“Even in a situation where the operators shut down the emergency core cooling system, we melt 60% of the core, we detonate hydrogen within the containment building... that system prevented any meaningful public health consequences to either the general public or the operators of the plant, which is why Three Mile Island is one of the greatest arguments you have for nuclear safety." — James Krellenstein"
I get the point of this takeaway, but I wonder if you have thought about the difference between what the releases would be for a clean shiny spanking new plant like TMI 2 at the time of the accident, versus what they would be for plants that have aged for awhile. TMI 2 hadn't even been in commercial operation for a few months before this accident happened, so the reactor wasn't embrittled, none of the Steam Generator tubes leaked, and there probably weren't cracks or corrosion anywhere. That wouldn't have been the case for an older plant.
Please, James, it’s Babcock, not Babcox or Babcocks.
The average downwind dose amounted to less than one chest X-ray.
So basically, America flipped out over an unscheduled chest X-ray.