Published: September 20th, 2012 at 7:21 pm ET
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CNN: The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant shut down unexpectedly Thursday when a reactor coolant pump failed, federal regulators said. [... An NRC spokesman] 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.
WCAU: An NRC inspector is on site and in the plant’s control room, according to officials.
Daily Record: Immediately after the shut down, an inspector with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission responded to the plant’s control room to ensure safety systems were functioning as designed, said Neil Sheehan, an NRC spokesman. “(The inspector) did not identify any immediate concerns with operator or equipment performance,” he said.
York Daily Record: “The steam discharge is a normal part of the shut down process,” [David Tillman, a spokesman for the plant] said. “If there is any trace of radiation in the steam discharge, it is below detectable levels.”
NBC: Plant spokesman Ralph DeSantis told WGAL-TV that there is no health risk and the public is not in danger. DeSantis said radiation levels in the steam were “below detectable levels,” according to WHTM-TV. A spokewoman from the NRC echoed that there is no impact on public health and safety, and said there was no evacuation at the plant. [...] People in the area, which is just outside of Harrisburg in Dauphin County, Pa., reported hearing a loud noise just after 2 p.m. Officials say that was caused from steam being released during the shutdown.
Patriot News: A Middletown woman living about four miles from Three Mile Island said the plant’s steam release Thursday afternoon sounded like a jet engine. She didn’t want to give her name. Her neighbor, Brenda Klockow didn’t hear a thing. [...] Middletown resident Scott Fagan looked out his window facing the plant. “I don’t see any flaming skies or birds dropping or rivers rising up to the heavens. I don’t see any of that.”
h/t Anonymous tips
UPDATE: Watch video of steam release here
Published: September 20th, 2012 at 7:21 pm ET
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sending...
steam from the primary or secondary?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3CWS1z_py4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY3qCKZOF30
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Middletown resident says, “I don’t see any flaming skies or birds dropping or rivers rising up to the heavens. I don’t see any of that.”
It's true you won't see it. But, that does not mean it's not there.
Cavalier attitudes may sound tough and courageous, but it could also just be a sign of ignorance.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVu92rk4M0Q
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Three Mile Island – Walter Cronkite, CBS, 03.30.1979 (Part 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16nAYUIKMiQ
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Cronkite: Every emergency creates its conflicting accounts, but in the matter of the Three Mile Island accident, the waves of confusion reached tidal proportions.
Police: A general emergency has been declared; there is no radiation leak.
Lieutenant governor: The situation is more complex than the company first led us to believe.
Company spokesman: The safety systems … functioned as designed … the plant's in a stable condition and … operating normally.
PA emergency management: There has been an uncontrolled release of radiation.
PA governor: The release was unexpected.
NRC spokesman: The release was NOT unexpected.
NRC spokesman: … my initial information might have been wrong …
Congressman: The NRC really is not able to conduct a thorough investigation because they themselves are part of the problem … we need an immediate outside investigation to find out exactly what's going on … to assure people in Pennsylvania that they going to be protected and … that this sort of thing is not going to happen again …
Senator (on energy committee): [warning against shutting down nuclear plants] It's going to be an extremely strained situation, and when your peak loads hit the summer you could have not just a brown out but a black out … And … the people who are already overburdened with terribly high utility rates are going to have rates that are even higher..
<<<
… And that's the way it STILL is …
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ABC NEWs – 1979
"Three Mile Island, Safety Fears in 1979"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VRdkTvv878
The media used to have at least some sense of duty and obligation to report the actual news, to investigate and find the stories instead of just circulating some rich man's view of the world which is plucked off the AP wire.
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"WCAU-TV Report of 3 Mile Island Meltdown – March 30, 1979"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g1Fn7KBwfg
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Trivia of the Insane!
The TMI accident occured 12 days after the premier of the movie, "The China Syndrome". Talk about scaring the shit out of the country.
"It's about people, people who lie, and people faced with the agony of telling the truth…….".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PJ-BzXAN1c
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scientist in movie: "… if the core is exposed … it melts right down through the bottom of the plant … as soon as it hits groundwater it blasts into the atmosphere and sends out clouds of radioactivity … [it would] render an area the size of Pennsylvania permanently uninhabitable, not to mention the cancer that would show up later …"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBl-w4J0Xtk
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I like the old lady's line in the scene that follows him:
"When they tell you the world's coming to an end, they want to sell you [something]. When they tell you not to panic … it's serious …"
Words to live by … literally.
Fuku has taught me NEVER again to trust the reassurances of anybody with connections to the nuclear industry–including the health physics people, the government, and the media. The more they insist it's no big deal, the bigger a deal it always proves to be.
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"Voices from the Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident 1979"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fmmdh8Xlbvg
"It roared, uhh, with a tremendous roar of releasing steam".
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Two of the usual three monitoring stations are offline, and have been, for the past few days, according to RadNet. I don't know which ones are which – we have Limerick, Peach Bottom and Three Mile Island to choose from, after all. This story does not surprise me, sadly – but it does raise my blood pressure, a bit.
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Anyone have wind directions, weather maps? Can't do that from here.
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http://www.wunderground.com/maps/us/northeast/WindSpeed.html
Best I can find, here, so far – click, 'Animation' for estimates. There's GOT to be something better.
Good old RadNet, if you don't have it: http://www.radiationnetwork.com/
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From the description, I bet a steam generator tube failed and vented super H☢T steam which then flashed to steam and made its way up the "radioactive" smoke stack!
Also This statement: “If there is any trace of radiation in the steam discharge, it is below detectable levels.” is total B$, since it contains zero data and you know they have radiation monitors inside the steam generator building that monitor 24/7 as well as many other locations!
If I'm correct then it is Bye Bye TMI steam generator!
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"VIDEO: Crews Prepare To Install TMI Generators "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln726oKpBP0
cutting a hole in a containment and expecting to repair it is just stupid.
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I thought they decommissioned that wreck years ago.
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Only the unit (i.e., reactor) that melted down. There are two units there, so the other one is still in use (unfortunately).
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From the PA turnpike you can see steam coming out of the one that is still in use .
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There is still live fuel stored in the reactors shut down.
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New cooling system leak due to cracks like the one that occurred last month?
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/09/20/three-mile-island-nuclear-plant-shutdown/70000806/1
TMI seems to slowly fall apart…
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TMI Steam Generators: Unexpected Flaw
http://www.tmia.com/node/1236
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