Nuclear Power Truths
Nuclear : Nuclear Plant Incidents
UPDATE:
Three Mile Island is still shutdown Thursday night. Around 220 Thursday afternoon, people who live near the nuclear power plant heard a loud noise, saw steam and then the plant automatically shut down.
This is the second time that this has happened in the past month.
Along with that steam, authorities say undetectable amounts of radiation were released into the air.
A TMI spokesperson says there was never a threat to public health so no evacuations were needed.
Guy Magaro was mowing the lawn when he heard it.
“All of a sudden you hear a big boom,” Magaro explained. “Steam vented out and then it goes into shutdown.”
Around 220 p.m. Thursday, a spokesperson for Three Mile Island says the nuclear power plant automatically shut down and steam was released into the air, releasing an undetectable amount of radiation.
“When our turbine shuts down the steam that normally goes to the turbine is released to the atmosphere,” explained TMI spokesperson Ralph DeSantis. “Any radiation in that steam is so low that we can’t detect it.”
It reminded Guy of the 1979 TMI accident, only this one didn’t force any evacuations, there was no public health risk and this time things got a bit noisy.
“Just a big, loud roar for a few minutes,” Magaro told us.
The roar was similar to one that occurred on August 22, TMI automatically shut down after a pump in the turbine building stopped working.
This time, operators say TMI shut down because one of four reactor coolant pumps malfunctioned. The pumps work to circulate water through the reactor coolant system.
Guy says he’s used to things like this happening at TMI and trusts in the system they have keep him and his family safe.
“I guess it’s just a normal occurrence, when something goes wrong it automatically shuts down and prevents anything from happening,” Magaro addressed.
We also talked with a spokesperson for TMI watchdog group, TMI Alert.
Eric Epstein says all of these ‘malfunctions’ at TMI are concerning and shouldn’t be happening.
TMI Alert will investigate.
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TMI officials say that the cause of the plant’s automatic shutdown was a malfunction of a reactor coolant pump.
There are four of them and one malfunctioned.
The reactor coolant pump circulates water through the reactor coolant system.
TMI is still in shutdown mode.
___________________________________________
Exelon officials are investigating what caused Three Mile Island to automatically shut down Thursday afternoon.
Authorities say undetectable amounts of radiation were released into the air, but there’s no danger to the public. No one was told to leave that area.
Around 220 Thursday afternoon, some people who live near TMI heard a loud noise. That sound was the sound of the plant automatically shutting down.
A spokesperson for the nuclear power plant says during the automatic shut down, steam was released into the atmosphere. It had very small, undetectable amounts of radiation.
TMI responded as designed and remains in normal shutdown condition while operators investigate the cause of the shutdown.
“The plant was operating at 100 percent power and something occurred in the plant to make the reactor shut down and the turbine shut down, so the plant is at a normal shut down condition now,” explained Three Mile Island Spokesperson Ralph DeSantis. “We have a command center set up with engineers and operations personnel and they’re going through their procedures right now as we speak to determined exactly what caused the shut down. Once we have that information, we’ll release that to the public.”
Officials aren’t sure when this plant will be back up and running again. The plant is designed to automatically shut down when necessary.
Again, there is no threat or risk to the public safety or health.
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Three Mile Island shut down on Thursday around 2:20 p.m., with residents hearing a loud boom.
CBS 21 is on the scene and will provide updates as they become available.
Information provided by TMI:
Three Mile Island Generating Station automatically shut down at 2:20 p.m. EDT Thursday.
The plant responded as designed and remains in normal shutdown condition while operators investigate the cause of the shutdown.
During the shutdown, steam was released into the atmosphere, creating a loud noise heard by nearby residents.
TMI uses state-of-the-art equipment to continuously monitor plant systems and conditions.
The plant is designed to automatically shut down when necessary. The automatic shutdown presents no risks to public health or safety.
Electric customers will not be affected.
Exelon waiting to nuke plant to cool to make repairs
 The cooling towers at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Middletown, Pa., in a 1998 file photo. (Chris Knight/For the Tribune / September 20, 2012) |
Associated Press
A malfunctioning pump caused an automatic shutdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant Thursday, the second such event in as many months.
Plant officials and government regulators said the shutdown at the plant, where a partial meltdown of a reactor in 1979 is considered the worst commercial nuclear power plant accident in U.S history, posed no threat to public health or safety.
The shutdown occurred shortly after 2:15 p.m. ,when the failure of a coolant pump tripped the computerized system that shuts downs the reactor in the event of any safety-related problems.
Once the reactor has cooled down enough, plant workers will be able to access the containment building and troubleshoot the problem, Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said.
The plant is named for the island where it’s located in the Susquehanna River, south of Harrisburg. It automatically shut down Aug. 22 while operators were manually shutting it down for repairs, said Ralph DeSantis, a spokesman for operator Exelon Generation.
DeSantis said the release of steam Thursday made a loud noise audible nearby but no detectable levels of radiation were released.
The Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant was shutdown Thursday.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Three Mile Island plant shuts down for the second time in a month
- Operators are trying to determine the cause of Thursday’s shutdown
- There was no danger to the public, the NRC and plant owner Exelon say
- Three Mile Island’s other reactor has been shut down since a partial meltdown in 1979
(CNN) — The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant shut down unexpectedly Thursday when a reactor coolant pump failed, federal regulators said.
“This appears to be a fairly straightforward shutdown,” said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “Every indication we’re getting is the reactor safety systems are performing the way they are designed.”
The Unit 1 reactor shut off automatically about 2:20 p.m., the plant’s owner, Exelon Corporation, reported. There is no danger to the public, but the release of steam in the process created “a loud noise heard by nearby residents,” the company said.
Sheehan said one of the four reactor coolant pumps appears to have stopped working. Though three others remain, the system shuts down when an anomaly is detected, he said.
Thursday marked the second time in a month that the reactor has been shut down, following an August 22 leak in a heating system used to pressurize water. The unit was replaced, inspectors found no signs of a problem in two other units and the reactor returned to service on September 5, according NRC records.
The 825-megawatt pressurized water reactor at Three Mile Island, about 10 miles outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has been in service since 1974 and can power about 800,000 homes. There was no loss of electrical service after Thursday’s shutdown, Exelon said.
The Unit 2 reactor has been shut down since a partial meltdown in 1979. There were no injuries and little release of radiation from that incident, which remains the worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history.
2011: U.S. agencies provide insight into how to prepare for, respond to nuclear disaster
CNN’s Mike M. Ahlers and Sonia Kennebeck contributed to this report.
Fri Sep 21, 2012 8:10am EDT
Sept 21 (Reuters) - Exelon Corp said it was
conducting repairs on a reactor coolant pump at the 805-megawatt
Unit 1 of its Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in
Pennsylvania, which shut down automatically on Thursday
following a malfunction.
"The cause of yesterday's shutdown was a problem with a
reactor coolant pump," company spokesman Ralph DeSantis said.
He did not specify any return date for the unit.
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PLANT BACKGROUND/TIMELINE
STATE: Pennsylvania
COUNTY: Dauphin
TOWN: Middletown about 10 miles (16 km) southeast of
Harrisburg, the state capital, on the Susquehanna
River
OPERATOR: Exelon Nuclear
OWNER(S): Exelon
CAPACITY: 805 MW
UNIT(S): Unit 1 - 786-MW Babcock and Wilcox pressurized
water reactor
Unit 2 - 802-MW Babcock and Wilcox pressurized
water reactor - owned by FirstEnergy - out
of service since the 1979 accident
FUEL: Nuclear
Dispatch: Baseload
COST: $400 million for Unit 1
TIMELINE:
1968-70 - General Public Utilities Corp, later named GPU
Inc, built the reactors. It was operated by GPU
subsidiary Metropolitan Edison Co (Met-Ed)
1974 - Unit 1 enters service
1978 - Unit 2 enters service
1979 - Partial meltdown of Unit 2 - the NRC said the
accident did not result in any deaths or injuries
to plant workers or the nearby communities. Unit 1
was shut for refueling during the accident and was
kept shut until 1985
1985 - Unit 1 returns to service
1999 - GPU sells Unit 1 to AmerGen Energy Corp, a joint
venture of Philadelphia Electric Co (PECO Energy)
and British Energy Group Plc
2000 - PECO Energy and Unicom merged to form Exelon Corp
2001 - GPU merged with FirstEnergy
2003 - Exelon buys British Energy's stake in AmerGen and
transferred it to Exelon Nuclear
2009 - NRC extends original 40 year operating license for
Unit 1 for another 20 years
2010 - NRC said the generator from Unit 2 will be used at
Duke Energy's Harris nuclear power plant in
North Carolina. The generator weighs 670 tons
2034 - Unit 1 license expires
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Raw Story 
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Devastated: Du (left) will require plastic surgery after the attack on a crowded Chinese street (right)
