Guilty plea in Three Mile Island Disaster

• Author: Allen Pusey
• Pages: 72-72

72

Guilty plea

in Three

Mile Island

Disaster

BY ALLEN PUSEY

It was 4 a.m. Wednesday, March

28, 1979, when something began

to go wrong at Three Mile Island,

a nuclear power plant sitting in

the middle of the Susquehanna River in

Pennsylvania. Whether from electrical

or mechanical failure, water in the Unit

2 reactor suddenly stopped owing

from the main feedwater pumps to the

steam generators that helped pull heat

from the reactor’s radioactive core.

The plant’s turbine generator and then

the reactor itself shut down, building

pressure in the plant’s piping that an

attendant relieved by opening a valve.

What followed, according to later

investigations, was a chain of human

miscues and mechanical failures that

resulted—seven years before Cher-

nobyl—in the most destructive and

controversial event in the U.S. involving

commercial nuclear power.

With the relief valve open, pressure

in the reactor ebbed to a safe level,

at which point the valve should have

closed. It didn’t, although the controls

indicated it had. As a result, water cool-

ant continued to drain to a point where

the radioactive core became uncovered

and began to overheat. Coolant pumps

began to vibrate and were shut down.

Water began to ood the pressurizer,

and its ow was cut back. And with

even less water to cool the system, the

ssionable material in the core of the

reactor began to melt. Within hours, the

Unit 2 reactor was lost.

Though the plant was forced to

release radioactive steam, the plant’s

owner, Metropolitan Edison, assured

Pennsylvania authorities that the

meltdown presented no health or safety

risks. Still, within days, more than

140,000 residents in Central Pennsylva-

nia evacuated.

There were multiple investigations

and thousands of lawsuits led by

businesses, residents and government

agencies concerned about economic

losses, health risks and cleanup costs. At

one point, Met Ed led its own lawsuit

against the Nuclear Regulatory Com-

mission, alleging that regulatory delays

had contributed to the accident.

Beyond obvious health and securi-

ty concerns, the incident was a major

embarrassment to proponents of com-

mercial nuclear power. Promoted

as an environmentally

sound alternative to

carbon-based fuels,

nuclear plants were

gaining traction

during the rise

of OPEC-driven

disruptions in

the ow and

pricing of oil.

But the indus-

try also had been

disrupted by rising

costs and rising

public skepticism, and

Three Mile Island was no

exception. The Unit 1 reactor

had taken six years and $400 million to

complete and commission, but Unit 2

took nine years and $700 million. Unit

2 had operated for only three months

when the accident occurred.

In meetings with investigators after

the accident, one of the control opera-

tors, Harold Hartman, alleged problems

with the faulty valve had been obvious

and probably well known to plant op-

erators. Hartman said he had reported

the problem to supervisors, who in turn

told him to fudge his reports “to get

a good leak rate.” To do so, Hartman

testied, the valve was tested constant-

ly—“day and night”—with only the oc-

casionally acceptable readings reported

to regulators.

In their own report, NRC investiga-

tors also ignored Hartman’s allegations

—even though a lead engineer assigned

to the group complained Hartman’s

sworn assessment about problems with

the valve were both believable and “an

important factor which affected the

course of the accident.”

In November 1983, a federal grand

jury in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in-

dicted Metropolitan Edison for violat-

ing its license to operate, violating NRC

regulations and one count of making

false statements in connection with the

leak tests.

On Feb. 29, 1984, the company

pleaded guilty to the single

count regarding testing

and nolo contendere

on the other counts.

It paid $45,000

in penalties and

dedicated a $1

million fund to

aid emergency

preparedness

in towns near

the plant.

Although class

litigation continued,

no medical damages

were ever directly attributed

to the accident.

In 1996, with the blessing of appeals

courts, a trial judge dismissed more

than 2,000 lawsuits involving Three

Mile Island.

The cleanup for Unit 2 took 14

years and cost an estimated $1 bil-

lion to complete. Unit 1, shuttered for

the course of the investigations, was

allowed to resume operations in 1985.

It was decommissioned for economic

reasons in September 2019. Q

Three Mile Island

Photo by Bettmann / Contributor via Getty Images

ABA JOURNAL | FEBRUARY–MARCH 2022

72

FEB. 29, 1984

Precedents