Joel Rose, who wrote a 2008 article that is still applicable today, reported that for nearly 30 years, Three Mile Island has been synonymous with the 1979 accident that caused the partial meltdown of one of its reactors. As a result of the accident, 140,000 people voluntarily evacuated the area around the plant in central Pennsylvania, amid fears that its reactor had released radioactivity into the environment. No one died, no one was irradiated. A media-induced panic about perceived radioactivity. This brought a halt to nuclear power in the U.S. Today, there is plenty of white water vapor pouring out of the cooling towers for Unit 1, the working reactor. Unit 2 has been dormant since the 1979 accident.Two months ago, the company that owns the working reactor applied for a license extension that would keep the plant running in the Susquehanna Valley until 2034. The 1979 accident brought about changes to nuclear power plants that some say make them safer.
If you look at what has happened in the industry in the last five years, there has been a renaissance. The plants are operating at high safety levels, says Ralph DeSantis, communications manager for Three Mile Island. For example, DeSantis notes that control room operators are trained on a simulator that is an exact replica of the real thing. DeSantis says better training is just one of the lessons the nuclear industry learned from the accident at Unit 2. There has not been a nuclear plant built in this country since the Three Mile Island accident, although that may be about to change, as power companies are planing to build more than two dozen plants, some with the SMRs, some with even newer technology. After a hiatus of nearly three decades, nuclear energy is booming. Seventeen power companies in the U.S. are making plans to build more than 30 nuclear plants, all of course with new technology. One important factor in the resurgence: new federal and state laws that help utilities pay for the nuclear plants.
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