Three Mile Island, the site of a nuclear meltdown in 1979 that forever changed America's view on nuclear energy, officially shuts down at noon Friday.
MIDDLETOWN, PA – Even 40 years later, John Garver vividly remembers the metallic taste of the nation's worst commercial nuclear disaster.
The partial meltdown sparked national protests, prompted increased safety standards for the nuclear power industry, and largely stymied the industry's momentum for decades until recent alarm over climate change has made some begin to embrace expanding carbon-free nuclear power.At noon on Friday, the remaining reactor will generate its last kilowatt of energy and close, a victim not of the anti-nuclear movement but rather of simple economics.
Nuclear energy comebackStory continuesThe closure of Three Mile Island comes as nuclear power is getting a second look thanks to the devastating impact of climate change. "Right now, nuclear is more than 50% of our non-carbon causing energy," Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., told a CNN town hall on climate change earlier this month."So people who think we can get there without nuclear being part of the blend just aren't looking at the facts."
A number of plants that were already in the pipeline prior to TMI's accident received licenses to operate after 1979. But plans for 39 others were canceled in the wake of the catastrophe, according to NRC documents. The accidentConstruction of the plant along the Susquehanna River near Middletown began in 1968 with the first reactor going on line six years later. Unit 2 came on line in December 1978, less than three months before its accident. Both were operated at the time by Metropolitan Edison. .At around 4 a.m. on Wednesday March 28, 1979, a mechanical or electrical failure prevented two pumps from sending water to steam generators, which cool the nuclear reactor with circulating water.
Geiger counters to detect and measure ionizing radiation became commonplace. Children and pregnant women were encouraged to evacuate the area, first within a five-mile radius of TMI, then within 20 miles. An estimated 140,000 residents left as well, hoping to outrun the radiation threat. President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn visited Middletown the Sunday after the accident in a bid to calm anxious residents and a worried nation.
The shuttered power plant became a popular stop for"dark tourism," the name given to infamous sites associated with death or tragedy that draw the morbidly curious. As time passed, many of the Scots and Irish who helped settle the area moved on, giving way to a wave of German immigrants who planted roots in the rolling hills and fertile farmland during the 19th Century.Many left the area as the warnings about the danger grew louder. Most returned after a few days when radiation levels were deemed not as harmful as first feared.
More: 'It's our future that's at stake': US students plan to skip school Friday to fight climate 'emergency' The first step to decommissioning the site involves transferring fuel to dry cask storage, made of stainless steel and concrete, for secure containment. That should happen around 2022, according to a timeline provided by Exelon.
In 1987, Congress selected Nevada's Yucca Mountain, a remote section of the Mojave Desert that sits about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, to become the nation’s permanent repository for nuclear waste generated by utility power plants and the military. It's been an economic engine even as it carried the stigma of what its detractors call the"incident" implying that the partial meltdown was a human-caused accident that should have been avoided.
The Nuclear Bean, a coffee shop, sells TMI-themed merchandise alongside gourmet teas. A new playground being planned for Hoffer Park will include locally themed features, including replicas of TMI's cooling towers. The local library has become a repository of Three Mile Island documents and records, a collection that drew visits from Japanese media following the 2011 earthquake that severely damaged Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant.
At the urging of his cousins in Connecticut, he evacuated to New England. The traffic got worse the closer he got to New York as if everyone was fleeing Pennsylvania, he recalled. His sister saw people carrying birds and other animals, presumably to detect radiation that humans could not taste or smell. The lack of credible information only added to the overall anxiety.
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