This week marked the 40th anniversary of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident.
The accident was the partial meltdown of a reactor in Dauphin County, near Harrsiburg, in 1979. It was the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history.
Slippery Rock University is reflecting this week on the anniversary, and an SRU professor says the incident continues to shape both the nuclear energy industry and safety management professionals.
Safety Management Instructor Jim Culligan says incidents like the one at Three Mile Island are part of the analysis conducted by safety management professionals and safety management students at SRU.
“The Three Mile Island accident was a significant event even though there were no injuries or illnesses associated with it,” said Culligan, noting that people in a five-mile radius were advised to stay indoors and children ages 5 and younger and pregnant women were evacuated. “It turned the surrounding area into a ghost town and became worldwide news.”
Trace amounts of radioactive gasses escaped from the reactor and a highly flammable hydrogen bubble formed inside the unit that could have resulted in an explosion that would have released larger amounts of radioactive material. Eventually, the hydrogen was bled from the system as the reactor cooled. Government agencies and independent groups conducted studies but there were no adverse health effects attributed to the exposure. However, public concern deeply impacted the growth of the nuclear energy industry in the years that followed. It comes as no surprise that there was deep public concern as the situation could’ve been a lot worse than what it was. Many construction accidents could result in serious injuries or in some cases, loss of life. In this circumstance, the families of the victim, or the victim themselves may want to think about contacting a law firm similar to Guajardo & Marks who will be able to guide them about how to make a claim so they can get the compensation they deserve. Not all construction workers’ first language is English and so it’s good to have help from lawyers who are able to communicate with them in their own language – for example, help for Spanish speakers from an abogado accidentes de construccion is available online if you look in the right places. Since this accident, the nuclear energy industry has been significantly impacted.
“For the nuclear energy industry, this brought about sweeping changes and new comprehensive compliance models,” Culligan said. “The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations was formed to audit power plants and promote the highest levels of training and consistency across the industry by providing accreditation to a facility.”
Public support for nuclear energy emerged in the 1970s, especially with gasoline shortages and the 1973 oil crisis, but the Three Mile Island accident and the 1986 Chernobyl plant explosion in the former Soviet Union stoked an anti-nuclear movement. In fact, no nuclear power plants were commissioned from 1979-2012. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, there are 60 commercially operating nuclear power plants and 98 reactors in the U.S. The newest reactor began service in 2016 and the next youngest operating reactor started in 1996, both are in Tennessee. Two new reactors are currently under construction at a plant in Georgia which is being built with the aid of union construction workers.
Three Mile Island continues to operate its Unit 1 reactor; however, Exelon Corporation, which currently owns and operates the facility, plans to close the plant in 2019. The Unit 2 reactor remains dormant and is a visual reminder of the accident.
Reminders of incidents like the one at Three Mile Island are part of the analysis conducted by safety management professionals and safety management students at SRU. In Culligan’s Comprehensive Emergency Management and Fire Service course, he has students develop emergency response plans for actual companies, which include a hazard vulnerability analysis where they identify hazards, emergencies or disasters that could occur. In working environments where workers need to handle or operate around radioactive materials, companies may want to provide employees with storemasta dangerous goods classes to ensure that they are armed with the training they need to remain safe when posed with the possibility of hazardous incidents. To practice for their site visits, the students are provided case studies and historical incidents like Three Mile Island.
“There’s no telling where the next type of disaster could come from,” Culligan said. “Three Mile Island was the result of human error as well as mechanical failures, and there are a lot of things that could be the equivalent of this. (In the news recently) we had the grounding of Boeing 737 airplanes for a malfunction and issues related to the design of the aircraft. But when you are promoting safety for a company, you have to get management’s commitment to it with reminders of things that happened in the past.”
