Submitted August 13, 2004, 6:18 PM
What do you remember about the accident at Three Mile Island? How did you hear about what happened at the plant? What was your reaction?
I was 11 years old when the accident occurred. I remember nothing of it.
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What are your reflections about the Three Mile Island accident more than two decades later? If you live or lived in the area, what longterm effects did TMI have on your family and community? Did the accident affect your opinion about nuclear power and other technologies?
I first entered the nuclear industry in 1990 as a design engineering assistant for a well-known utility. I had an interest in nuclear power due to its normally "environmentally-friendly" aspects. Within my first six months, I found an excellent book written shortly after entitled "The Accident" by Ira Rosen and Mike Gray. It was then that I realized the seriousness of what had happened and was puzzled as to why, even then, many of those in the industry did not have much knowledge of the incident or its gravity. To this day, I remain in favor of nuclear power with a healthy skepticism regarding its safety. I would attribute this skepticism due solely to my in-depth knowledge of what has happened at TMI and Chernobyl but more recently, Davis Besse.
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Do you have any further thoughts or reflections about Three Mile Island?
At TMI, the control room was staffed with our nation's best and brightest operators, many of whom served as Naval submariners. The design engineers were at the time, our nation's best and brightest. Neither were sufficient to prevent TMI from happening. Even today, Control Room operators are still being trained that the damage caused to TMI was due more in part from the thermal shock to the Zircaloy fuel cladding than from molten dislocation. Even today, Control Room operators are being trained that the increase in the Source Range Nuclear Instrumentation (excore neutron detectors) at TMI was due to voiding with no mention of the fact that it was in part due to dislocation of fissile material. TMI was a watershed event and teaches us that each day in the nuclear power business, we MUST continue to foster a healthy questioning attitude and to prevent the technical arrogance that led to TMI, Chernobyl and recently, Davis Besse.
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In addition to saving your story to the archive, may we post it to the web? (yes/no)
Name
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