Show Industry reaction to Three-Mile Island accident By Helen C. The utility Industry has reacted carefully but definitely to the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island In March with the establishment of a center designed to upgrade nuclear This month it established a Nuclear Safety Analysis Center thru the Electric Power Research the research arm of the nation's Its mission is safety in its many forms pertaining to the nuclear industry generally and nuclear reactors in After much private gnashing of the utilities decided this was the way to It also has started what it calls an on the work of the In its first report just issued the utilities mission is to carry out a detailed technical analysis of the events at the Three Mile Island nuclear power station's unit near March and to interpret the lessons to be learned from it is to develop strategies to minimize the possibility of a future and to address generic questions of reactor is to act as a clearinghouse on technical information on safety issues that emerge following the and make recommendations on changes In safety systems or modifications of operating procedures that would further improve it in addition to the Presidential commission designated to find out what happened at Three Mile the study being carried on by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a half dozen studies being carried on by Congressional Committees including the two key authorizing the industry plans to have its own Three Mile Island How carefully industry does its study and how truthfully it reports on it to the public will be an important factor in public acceptance of nuclear reactors the MOST SERIOUS IN HISTORY Chairman Gary of the Senate Subcommittee on Nuclear Regulation has called the accident at Three Mile Island most serious in our history-in in the history of the peaceful nuclear program throughout the In an address before the National Press Club on May 8 Hart detailed what happened at Three Mile routine tripping of the which should have brought the reactor to a automatic instead triggered a chain of events imagined only by Hollywood film Hart They he pressure relief valves stuck open while control-room gauges indicated they were emergency pumps blocked by valves that had been manually water-level indicators showing the nuclear core to be covered in it was in led to premature shut-off of the emergency core cooling In he highly radioactive water that should have been held in the sealed containment building was pumped automatically into an unsealed auxiliary Radioactive gases from this water were vented into the atmosphere because the auxiliary building was pressed its capacity to contain And the now-famous hydrogen bubble that endangered the cooling of the reactor the flow of coolant water thru the nuclear core because the reactor vessel had no valve for drawing off the Hart Reaction all along the line was Hart he told his versions of what was happening and strong disagreements on the level of He experts were dum-founded and It took them two days to figure out what had happened and to conclude the core was badly despite the fact that the control-room records told the full story at the time of the There was a very serious breakdown in com nuclear officials in utility operators at the plant site and state officials in Off-site monitoring of radiation was Incomplete and In this chaotic critical decisions were being made on how to bring the reactor under control and whether to order an Hart we were unprepared to deal with the The American people had accepted nuclear by and with the understanding it was they are demanding he HWO UTILITY CHIEFS VIEWED IT Western Resources Wrap-up asked the operating heads of several utilities for their reactions to the Three Mile Island accident after It Three thoughtful responses came general manager of the Salt River Project of who is a member of the Three Mile Island Ad Hoc Nuclear Overnight Committee which will help the with Its analysis of the March 28 told is apparent to me that the public's acceptance of nuclear power has been badly shaken and that the credibility of the utilities and NRC has been materially diminished as a result of Three Mile Absent a program which restores public confidence in nuclear energy and the regulatory then it seems to me the nuclear option is in serious I feel It is too early to propose such a program with any degree of and I only hope we are smart enough and wise enough to develop that program when the full implications of Three Mile Island are J.D. president of Public Service Company of New Mexico headquartered at told utilities must continue to acknowledge the potential albeit very of nuclear power and assure the people that necessary safety precautions are being and that the when considering the is an acceptable one for our society to Geist made a couple of other Several weeks after the Three Mile Island he is an increasing realization was not as near a catastrophe as the public had originally been led to There is a generally held view within the utility industry that the press overacted to the accident and overstated the and Geist shares that Geist Three Mile Island made the public aware that percent of the energy needs of the United States are being supplied with It is not an experimental technology nor one which can suddenly be stopped irrespective of the potential in need the nuclear option if we are to have an adequate supply of energy in the United States over the next Geist told Charles F. chairman of the board of Consolidated Edison of New York and former administrator of the Bonneville Power sent his report to Con Ed stockholders on May 21 which contained his observations on Three Mile 17 Con Ed's nuclear reactor in New York at Point has operated We will do our utmost to see that it continues to operate In light of the accident at Three Mile Island nuclear we are re-examining the operating training and all other features of Indian Point that affect its We have asked a distinguished group of scientists and engineers to review our Indian Point units are of a different design from the Three Mile Island and we believe they have important additional safety Luce PUBLIC EXPOSURE EQUALS DENVER'S it must be remembered even at Three Mile an accident more severe than any that has occurred in a commercial nuclear reactor did not injure any member of the The safety systems designed to contain harmful radioactive releases The exposure of the population living nearest the at Three Mile Island approximately the same as the natural radioactivity that residents of receive every Luce the nuclear power Is safer by far than coal which Is the practical alternative to nuclear power in this I know that there are some who contend that we can forthwith shut down nuclear generating stations and substitute only and wood Such a program would be Luce He outlined the amount of land that would be needed for such all large Then he and rural property owners and environmental organizations be outraged by the dedication of these vast land areas to solar or timber Even a narrow electric transmission line some feet disturbs them he With the nuclear option currently on Luce Con Ed should reduce its on imported oil by converting its oil-fired units to liquefied coal and other coal derived Luce |