Three Mile Island Netflix documentary.

[Ramcharger90]

So as a Pennsylvanian born and raised, who even took a school trip to tmi and remembers driving right past the base of the cooling tower on a bus during a tour in elementary/middle school somewhere from 3rd-6th grade.... I gotta say from what I can tell this docu series is full of fear mongering and people who failed to do their job and fulfill their duties. Now obviously if I were to talk to a family member who is a nuclear engineer from Belgium, he may have a different opinion, I can't say for sure mainly because I never asked... but anyway TMI seemed to pretty safe compared to the other incidents in nuclear energy....

Seems like the guy who got the boran sample was the only guy who fulfilled his obligations.


An ill-informed public and fear fueled by a movie that premiered 12 days earlier.

 

[ericbphoto]

Yes. That was a pretty mild incident, fortunately. I was in 9th grade, living just outside Harrisburg. My dad was already in training for his new position at the nuke plant being built near Berwick, PA. We moved that summer. But I remember talks of possible evacuation. I think we did get to go home from school early one day because of it. It was a bit stressful, even for us kids.

 

[Uncle Gump]

It still ranks as the worst accident in the US.

It was also 30 minutes away from being the worst accident on the planet.

My takeaway was there are zero shortcuts in nuclear.

Also... they got really lucky.

 

[ericbphoto]

You are correct that no shortcuts can be allowed.

TMI had a very safe design. It is/was Pressurized water reactor. It is designed in such a way that if the coolant temperature rises too high and the water boils, it actually slows the fission chain reaction because steam can not slow down enough neutrons to sustain the reaction. It's called a "negative temperature coefficient". So, in an incident that causes higher temperatures, the fission naturally slows down, which brings the temperature back down and helps the operators regain or maintain control. It's the same general design the Navy uses.

Think about it. At any moment, in a USNavy base, you could have 10-20 or more reactors being operated by guys in their early 20's. And there's no problem. Those are pretty good odds.

 

[DILLARD000]

My humble opinion.
NuclearPlants &\or NuclearWeapons are a 10,000+ year long "Dance With The Devil":
at any point in that dance, if you miss a step, in design, in construction, in operation, in maintenance,
accidentally or otherwise, a lot of people will get forever & irreversibly burned.
Individuals that advocate for nuclear are likely those that will benefit financially,
ie those employed in the industry\military\companies that design\build\maintain\operate these systems, or politicians taking kickbacks..
Historically, miss steps & accidents have always been a part of mankinds story;
no valid reason to assume it will be different for nuclear.

 

[ericbphoto]

My humble opinion.
NuclearPlants &\or NuclearWeapons are a 10,000+ year long "Dance With The Devil":
at any point in that dance, if you miss a step, in design, in construction, in operation, in maintenance,
accidentally or otherwise, a lot of people will get forever & irreversibly burned.
Individuals that advocate for nuclear are likely those that will benefit financially,
ie those employed in the industry\military\companies that design\build\maintain\operate these systems, or politicians taking kickbacks..
Historically, miss steps & accidents have always been a part of mankinds story;
no valid reason to assume it will be different for nuclear.

By that reasoning, we should avoid anything that involves any kind of risk.

 

[Ramcharger90]

You are correct that no shortcuts can be allowed.

TMI had a very safe design. It is/was Pressurized water reactor. It is designed in such a way that if the coolant temperature rises too high and the water boils, it actually slows the fission chain reaction because steam can not slow down enough neutrons to sustain the reaction. It's called a "negative temperature coefficient". So, in an incident that causes higher temperatures, the fission naturally slows down, which brings the temperature back down and helps the operators regain or maintain control. It's the same general design the Navy uses.

Think about it. At any moment, in a USNavy base, you could have 10-20 or more reactors being operated by guys in their early 20's. And there's no problem. Those are pretty good odds.

Besides if it wasn't a good design to my understanding it would have gone much differently even if that dummy shut off the water the core would have tried to protect itself until someone figured out the issue and thats why the rods took so long in the grand scheme of things to even have a partial meltdown.

 

[DILLARD000]

By that reasoning, we should avoid anything that involves any kind of risk.

NOT what I said or what I'm advocating.
I entirely support+encourage you+anybody as individuals to make your own choices resulting in risks\benefits to yourself &\or your family.
I do NOT support an industry & relatively small elitist group, for simple short term financial gain, insisting on making very risky\poor choices
for entire regions\nations that WILL sooner\later result in millions of others & hundreds of generations suffering deadly consequences.

 

[Jazzer]

Since TMI, I’ve thought that the Navy should operate nuclear power plants, as an essential national industry.

They have fine engineers, years of experience from our nuclear powered sub fleet, and the principle of staff command and obedience to protocol seems the safest operational methodology.

-Jazzer

 

[Ramcharger90]

Agreed if anything should be nationalized it should be nuclear energy. With atleast 2 independent boards overseeing all safety operations and no ability to classify any maintenance or operating issues, the technological details is one thing though...

 

[snoranger]

Agreed if anything should be nationalized it should be nuclear energy. With atleast 2 independent boards overseeing all safety operations and no ability to classify any maintenance or operating issues, the technological details is one thing though...

F*(k NO!!!
As a government employee I can not approve of this. The cost overruns, the repair parts “brought to you by the lowest bidder”, the “locked in” contracts because of the bidding process, etc.

All I do is fix trucks for the government and we can’t get that done in a timely manner. It can take us a month to a month and a half to get parts because of the way the process works. The government is always in its own way. I wouldn’t want that shit show at a power plant.

 

[ericbphoto]

F*(k NO!!!
As a government employee I can not approve of this. The cost overruns, the repair parts “brought to you by the lowest bidder”, the “locked in” contracts because of the bidding process, etc.

All I do is fix trucks for the government and we can’t get that done in a timely manner. It can take us a month to a month and a half to get parts because of the way the process works. The government is always in its own way. I wouldn’t want that shit show at a power plant.

I concur.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Since TMI, I’ve thought that the Navy should operate nuclear power plants, as an essential national industry.

They have fine engineers, years of experience from our nuclear powered sub fleet, and the principle of staff command and obedience to protocol seems the safest operational methodology.

-Jazzer

They couldnt even design a soup can anymore.

Have you followed the F-35 or dare I mention the current LCS debacle?

And those ain't even nukes...

 

[97RangerXLT]

Modern gas cans for your mower should be an indication of how government can screw things up

AJ

 

[superj]

It's the same for us at depot