Worth Reading: 'The Legacy of Three Mile Island'

By Melissa Beattie-Moss
Research/Penn State

In a memorable line of dialogue, an energy official tells the intrepid reporter played by Jane Fonda that an explosion at Ventana "could render an area the size of the state of Pennsylvania permanently uninhabitable." Twelve days later, the nation awoke to news that a nuclear accident had occurred at the Three Mile Island (TMI) power plant outside of Harrisburg.

The plots of the film and the real-life incident were almost identical. In both, engineers misread water levels and presume the reactor core is being cooled properly, when in fact there is no water covering the core at all.

How close did Three Mile Island actually come to a "China Syndrome" melt-down? "It is quite possible that in another 20 minutes or so, the lower portion of the reactor vessel would have melted, releasing hot molten fuel onto the floor of the containment building, posing an even greater, possibly uncontrollable release of radiation into the environment."

This is the frank assessment of Bonnie A. Osif, Anthony J. Baratta and Thomas W. Conkling. Professor emeritus of nuclear engineering at Penn State, Barratta assisted with the decontamination and recovery project at TMI. Conkling and Osif are engineering librarians who maintain Penn State's extensive collection of TMI-related videotapes, photographs and reports.

Together, they have co-authored TMI 25 Years Later: The Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant Accident and Its Impact , published by Penn State University Press. Their aim was to provide an objective assessment, to counterbalance the "confusing, contradictory or missing information" that has long-plagued public discussion of the accident.

The book has a clear and linear organization, beginning with the basic principles of nuclear energy production, and proceeding to a detailed discussion of the accident's timeline, causes and a clean-up process that lasted a decade and cost $1 billion. Readers learn some lesser-known details about the defueling of the crippled Unit Two reactor, such as the discovery of microorganisms flourishing in the contaminated core water. This "unanticipated event" interrupted the clean-up schedule until a solution could be found. (Hydrogen peroxide, dubbed "bug kill," eventually was used to eliminate them.)

The authors also discuss the psychological and physical effects of the accident on the local community. Some of the TMI studies have yielded inconclusive and perplexing results. For instance, a University of Pittsburgh study of data collected over 19 years on the "cause-specific mortality" of people living in the vicinity of TMI suggested that "increased background radiation" correlates to a somewhat higher risk for blood and lymph cancers, as well as breast cancer.

However, "the researchers concluded that mortality statistics provided no consistent evidence that radioactivity released during the accident had a significant impact on the mortality of the people in the cohort."

Surprisingly, the same study indicates that an elevated mortality rate in the TMI group was "principally due to heart disease, a disease not associated with radiation."

Is there a connection between stress and heart disease in the case of TMI-area residents? Several studies of this population indicate a "slightly higher stress level that has remained elevated for years." These people viewed TMI as "not only an acute crisis ... but also as a long-term, chronic threat." Researchers concluded that "stress -- even minor levels of chronic stress--as found in TMI residents -- may have significant health effects over time."

In one section of the book, the authors examine the impact of media coverage on public reactions to the accident. They write, "Looking back over 25 years, it is easy to forget that cable news networks did not exist ... Most people did not have computers, never mind Internet connections."

The authors remind us that, in 1979, news "was provided by radio, the three network news programs ... and the newspapers. Reporting often was not live but filmed earlier for evening broadcast." Reporters also "lacked scientific and technical training" to accurately interpret and report on the accident as it unfolded.

More than 25 years later, "an entire generation may know little about the nerve-wracking days following the accident or the years of the cleanup." Osif, Baratta and Conkling attribute this to the accident being "contained, controlled and cleaned up with so little long-term effect." Yet, for these authors, the passing of time doesn't diminish the "far-reaching legacy" of Three Mile Island in a wide range of areas -- "scientific, technical, philosophical, economic, political and personal."

"The lessons learned," they write, "have helped shape our world."

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Bonnie A. Osif, engineering reference and instruction librarian in the engineering library at Penn State University Park, can be reached at (814) 865-3697 and bao@psulias.psu.edu. Anthony J. Baratta, professor emeritus of nuclear engineering, can be reached at (814) 865-0038 and ab2@psu.edu. Thomas W. Conkling, head of the engineering library at Penn State University Park, can be reached at (814) 865-3698 and twc1@psu.edu.

For more features about research at Penn State, visit Research/Penn State magazine at http://www.rps.psu.edu/ online.