The nuclear power provided at Three Mile Island which is located in Pennsylvania is composed of two cores TMI1 and TMI2. The TMI2 core was shut down after a partial meltdown which occurred in 1979. Retrospectively, has the plant caused any environmental problems since the accident, or is it a time bomb waiting to devastate the east coast.
Since the meltdown the following incidents have occurred:
- For eleven days during June and July 1980 approximately 43,000 curies of radioactive Krypton-85 were released into the air.
- During 1984 while fixing TMI2 radioactive gases had been released in the environment.
- 1993 TMI2 radioactive water was evaporated into the air.
Though stricter safety standards have been imposed on the nuclear plant to reduce health and environmental problems, it can be viewed more as a band aid approach used to keep the plant active. There has been no significant modernization of the plant which could guarantee containment of radio active gases in the event of another melt down. It also needs to be considered that the plant is privately owned where profits could trump safety.
Considering the fact that nuclear energy has been around for less than 60 years, but nuclear reactor components like uranium235 have a half life of over 700 million years. Odds are against nuclear energy being safe in the long term.
No comments:
Post a Comment