Three Mile Island accident

The location
The Three Mile Island accident was a partial nuclear meltdown that occurred on March 28, 1979, in 1 of the 2 Three Mile Island power plant's nuclear reactors, in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. It was the worst accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history to date and the 3rd worst in the world.

The atomic power station was built in 1974 on a sandbar on Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna River, just 10 miles downstream from the state capitol of Harrisburg. The state-of-the-art Reactor 2 was made in 1978, as a hoped for way of generating affordable and reliable energy in a time of 1970s energy crises.

The accident
It was a civil nuclear meltdown that poisoned a large area. The cause was human errors and mechanical problems with a stuck valve that controlled steam flows.

That night TMI-2 reactor was running at 97% of full power, while the companion TMI-1 reactor was shut down for refueling. It all began at 4:37 am EST, on March 28, 1979, in TMI-2's secondary loop, one of the three main water/steam loops in a pressurized water reactor (PWR).

Aftermath
The U.S. 96th Congressional session passed U.S. legislation establishing a five-year nuclear safety, research, demonstration, and development program during the December of 1980.

Also see

 * 1) The Windscale reactor fire and 5 Sellafield incidents
 * 2) Chernobyl disaster
 * 3) Corporate malfeasance at the Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station
 * 4) Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant accidents
 * 5) Kyshtym (Urals Mountains) disaster
 * 6) Chalk River nuclear accident
 * 7) SL-1 Experimental Power Station accident

Links

 * 1) http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Three_Mile_Island_accident
 * 2) http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Safety-and-Security/Safety-of-Plants/Three-Mile-Island-accident/
 * 3) http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/nuclear-accident-at-three-mile-island
 * 4) http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/nuclear-accident-at-three-mile-island
 * 5) http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html