At 4 am on March 28, 1979, a disaster struck Three Mile Island in the USA. This was the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history that caused a radiation leak into Pennsylvania.
On that black day, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant suffered a coolant loss accident that affected one of its two reactors. This accident occurred because a valve that should have been closed was left open, releasing water that should have acted as a coolant for the TMI-2 nuclear reactor core.
As the water drained, the exposed core overheated, and in an unfortunate sequence of events, the plant operators decided to shut off the emergency water, which could cool it again. Atomic Archive, without the coolant, the exposed part of the core began to burn as temperatures in the reactor rose to 2,371°C.
A nuclear meltdown like the devastation that hit Chernobyl was caused by overheating, and Three Mile Island came dangerously close to meeting the same fate. In her article titled “Atomic Nightmares and the Biological Citizens of Three Mile Island,” Natasha Zaretsky notes that fortunately there was no meltdown, but a radiation leak from a rupture in the powerhouse’s auxiliary building.
Few were thought to be harmed by this near-critical event, but recent research on epidemiological data on cancer, heart disease and premature death among residents suggests otherwise.
Was the nuclear disaster caused by an operator’s belly button?
According to an article published in the Washington Post six weeks after the nuclear accident, the problem with the open valve may not have been checked for a long time due to visibility issues. According to the report of the special research team of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; an operator accidentally blocked the view of the gauges with his body that would tell him that two important feedwater pump valves were closed. NRC sources explained after the meeting that the operator was a ‘large man with his belly dangling above the instrument panel’.
Without these key indicators, the plant operators were unaware of the situation in the second reactor and thought there was coolant in the core due to the hums in the steam generator. An even greater disaster ensued as they were required to wear face masks and respirators and were prevented from communicating with each other. The evacuation request was also inconclusive, as only half of the operators left leaving the door open while they were leaving.
A fitting conclusion to a complex workday, a computer that was supposed to record the sequence of events during the accident was locked for an hour and a half at the height of the disaster. This meant that they were two hours behind what was actually going on and were largely lost.
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