Nuclear Tragedy on Three Mile Island :: History Nuclear Essays

Nuclear Tragedy on tercet international mile IslandThe Three Mile Island cerebrovascular accident can be attributed to both mankind error and mechanical failure. This story begins on March 28, 1979 at active four oclock in the morning. Every thing seemed to be running efficiently down at the nuclear power plant in Three Mile Island. Little did anyone know the catastrophe that was about to occur.The problem started in the secondary loop. There was a slight malfunction, which caused the pumps to shut down automatically. The alarms sounded in a flash within the cook room. Water pressure and body of water temperature began to build in the unproblematic loop, because the heat could no longer be transferred to the secondary loop. However, this seemed pattern and was no cause for immediate doctor.At this point, the pressure relief valve (PORV) had undefended automatically and released the travel into a holding tank. The backup pumps, which are fit(p) in the secondary loop, au tomatically dour on. Then, the cut-off valves disconnected the pumps from the system. The operators in the control room still felt that everything was running normal and there was vigour to worry about. Then, the PORV light went out indicating that the valves were then closed however they were not. The steam and water continued to be released causing a loss of coolant accident (LOCA). The emergency injection water (EIW) was set in motion in the primary loop. The EIW is activated in the role of a LOCA. This did not concern the operators because it had happened before during numerous false alarms. However, they kept their eye on it, and spy that the water in the primary loop was rising, while the pressure was decreasing. They turned off the EIW, but the water still appeared to be rising. However, that was not the case at all. The water along with the steam was being released through the PORV, without the operators knowing. By this time, over three thousand gallons had escaped fro m the primary loop. The instrument that checks the level of radioactivity levels was not functioning, so the operators had no reason to suspect a LOCA. The gauges in the control room continued to falsely state that the water levels were up. At this time, two of the four pumps were turned off in the primary loop caused by the amount of pressure from the steam traveling through them. Then, the last two pumps in the primary loop shut off.