Introduction
Today nuclear reactors and any explosions known to be closely related to nuclear power are most fear across the globe due to their known adverse effects that can last for decades. Across the globe, there have been several nuclear blasts, which have left many people disabled and living in dysfunctional families. Reporters who have witnessed such occurrences in history note that these are sad happening that can render a whole region “uninhabitable” for a long time (Walker 1). The Three Mile Island accident marked history in 1979 as one of the worst nuclear accident in the history of nuclear power. In this paper, I shall highlight and discuss on the devastating incident that took place in the United States back in the late 1970s.
The nuclear plant situated at the heart of Pennsylvania, was reported to have electrical and mechanical failure on the March 28, 1979 (Gray and Rosen 3). The failure registered played a major role in the destruction of the plant was water was not sent to the generator. The water was the key coolant, which contributed to the normal operations of the turbines. As a result, the reactor was forced to shut down. However, this was not the end as pressure rose beyond the manageable limits within the nuclear reactor. While operators tried their best to ensure maximum control of the pressure, their efforts did not bring a permanent solution (U.S. NRC 1-2).
In order to control the pressure relief valve were used to reduce the pressure back to the normal level. Afterwards, these valves were required to remain closed. However, the relief valves did not close, and indicators failed to identify this failure. The worst was yet to happen when the plant loosed its coolant at the very core. It is important to understand that the coolant contained many nuclear reactive material and was thus to be protected with a lot of water covering it. The lack of sufficient water (coolant) resulted to overheating. Unfortunately, this problem could not be well noted, as the machines were not indicating the correct status. Although the problem was later controlled without having dangerous reactive substances to the surrounding areas, fuel pellets melted outside the core (U.S. NRC 1-2).
Three Mile Island accident negative impacts
As an accident that could have caused permanent problems in the area noted in U.S. the accident was one that could be avoided and instead ensure safety. With fingers pointed to “oversight and misjudgments”, Walker (3) indicates that lack of responsible leaders was key in this issue. The nuclear meltdown experienced at this time caused many worries amongst environmental specialist, non-government al organizations, and the governmental bodies, which triggered in depth studies on the effects of this nuclear meltdown (Derkins 32). Despite have fears of the meltdown on the environment studies have shown that, the environment was not critical affected by the melt down. Minimal amount of radiations were noted in the surrounding areas. These have since been marked as negligible as it is within the range of the radiations that can be sustained in the environment. This is evidence gather from water, soil, and air samples in Pennsylvania.
It is paramount to realize that nuclear power has significant negative effects on the community and environment around. Despite having evidence, that refutes negative impact on the people and surroundings of Pennsylvania, nuclear power contaminates water thus causing serious health issues in the long-term. Additionally, there is no means by which nuclear power can be stored safely. This increases risks of exposure to nuclear radioactive materials especially for workers within the plant. With heights of fear of the radioactive material that could have penetrated in to the environment, people were evacuated from the area to safe zone. Consequently, the tedious exercise of cleanup began. Because of the meltdown at the core of the nuclear zone, the nuclear plant was contaminated extensively and required a lot of clean up with extra caution. The effects of the meltdown made the plant to be shut down for at least two years before further activities could be revived within the area.
Investigation from different sources as mentioned above highlighted that the releases of radioactive materials to the environment was very minimal despite having the extensive contamination at the inside of the nuclear plant. Subsequently, it can be said that there were negligible negative effects caused by this destructive incident in Pennsylvania. This is the fact that differentiated this experience with the other nuclear meltdown in Fukushima.
Hatch, Beyea, Nieves, and Susser (397) performed a study within the affected areas. Although it is said, that radiation within the area was negligible and health effects minimal most fears pointed to a high increase of cancer cases in the region. Cancers such as childhood malignancies and Leukemia amongst children were feared to heighted. This was a study performed for people living at least within a radius of 10 miles. On the contrary, adults were marked to be safer than children were.
Lessons learnt from the event
While the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown is known to have life, threatening there were no cases of reported of injuries or death. This event is thus taken to have been a “wake up call” to develop serious and substantial caution to the nuclear industry across the nation (Kingery 2.1). From this day on, all nuclear plants in the western countries noted the essential aspects that required adequate attention for the proper functioning of the plants and the safety of all workers and inhabitants in the nearby areas. Operating procedure and system handling processes were all re-evaluated and rectified based on this experience with a hope to have a better future in the nuclear industry.
In another perspective, a lesson was learnt that all plants must have equipments that monitor the amount of radiations released into the atmosphere with the plant and outside (World Nuclear Association 9). This was critical, as in this case, there was no detector to note the release of nuclear radioactive content from the core. On the other hand, it was very important to have accident conditions placed in strategic places within the plant and monitor regulations (U.S. NRC 4). It was also noted that it is paramount to have international activities whereby people can be taught on basic nuclear knowledge.
Ethical issues identified from the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown
Some of the critical issue that arose from the Three Mile Island event is the lack of sensitivity for the people living within the area. It was important that all activities done within a radius of about 10 mile be considered for safety purposes. For instance, one of the cleaning companies contracted to do cleaning of the radioactive waste did not consider decontamination before beginning the cleaning process. As a result, this could lead to further effects unless enough caution was taken for the safety of the people in Pennsylvania (Tittle 79).
It is said that ethical responsibility can be contrary to loyalty to the employer. However, at time it is critical to realize the effect of the same to other people. The employee at the plant within the days of the nuclear meltdown had a responsibility of checking out all the processes taking place within the plant. Failure to doing so was putting at risk every person within and outside the premises to mention the environment around.
The makers of the plant were not keen enough to establish substantial alternatives that ensure adequate controls of any leakages in the nuclear plants. For instance, there could have been processes and procedure that ensured patrol around the plant making consistent follow up on all critical areas of the plant. The lack of such aspects overpowered the ability to control the leakage of radioactive material within the plant. Additionally, the lack of regulations to be followed to ensure normal and safe operations was equally bad for both the workers and people in the surrounding places.
Conclusion
Often radioactive reactions are marked as lethal in nature. Although they are substances, which produce powerful energies, history records as nuclear related accidents as the worst. The Three Mile Island situation was listed amongst the worst fabricated accidents despite having minimal effects to the environment. With lack of substantial evidence to point to the deadly effects of radioactive material from the nuclear plants, organizations have come to agree that the accident could have been worse. However, the same is marked as one of the accidents that could have been escaped.
The Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown left many nuclear producing nations and companies wanting to counter check their manufacturing the nuclear industry protocol. As a result, changes were made as various companies established a safe way of continuing with nuclear power productions. On the other hand, the exposure to radioactive materials triggered a lot of ethical issue such as health risks during clean up and the lack of precautions and safety standards for the sake of workers at the plant. Similarly, lessons learnt for this event left a permanent marked of caution that still signals safety at all nuclear plants and surrounding areas.
Works Cited
Derkins, Susie. The Meltdown of Three Mile Island. The Rosen Publishing Group: New York. 2003.
Gray, Mike. and Rosen, Ira. The Warning: Accident at Three Mile Island. W. W. Norton & Company Incorporated. New York. 2003.
Hatch, Maureen C., Beyea, Jan., Nieves, Jeri W., and Susser1, Mervyn. Cancer near The Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant: Radiation Emissions. American Journal of Epidemiology. 132 (3): 397-412. 1990.
Kingery, Thomas, B. Nuclear Energy Encyclopedia: Science, Technology, and Applications. John Wiley & Sons: New York. 2011.
Norris, Fran. H. Methods for Disaster Mental Health research. Guilford Press: New York. 2006.
Powell, Albrecht. Three Mile Island - 25 Years Later. About.com. 2013. http://pittsburgh.about.com/cs/history/a/tmi.htm
Tittle, Peg. Ethical Issues in Business: Inquiries, Cases, and Readings. Broadview Press: California. 2000.
U.S. NRC. Backgrounder on the Three Mile Island Accident. U. S. NRC. February 11, 2013. Retrieved from http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html
Walker, Samuel. J. Three Mile Island: a nuclear crisis in historical perspective. University of California Press: California. 2006.
World Nuclear Association. Three Mile Island Accident. World Nuclear Association. 2012 Retrieved from http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Safety-and-Security/Safety-of-Plants/Three-Mile-Island-accident/#.Uas-1NIwe-A
