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Index Three Mile Island concepts Nuclear energy concepts Fission concepts | ||
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Misleading behavior of a safety valve quickly compounds the problem.
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The stuck relief valve leads to some radiation release
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Meanwhile, back at the reactor ...
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Three Mile Island: A Brief Chronology
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The ECCS was shut off!!
Though now largely forgotten, there were national headlines for about a week concerning the large hydrogen bubble that had formed at the top of the reactor vessel. In retrospect, since the bubble formed by the interaction with the hot zircalloy tubes and the steam there was no significant risk of the hydrogen exploding in the reactor vessel itself because there was no available oxygen. The formation of the hydrogen bubble occured because the superheated zircalloy stripped oxygen away from the steam, creating the hydrogen bubble. With the zircalloy that hungry for oxygen, there wasn't going to be enough available to explode the hydrogen bubble. |
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Three Mile Island Reactor DamageThe financial cost of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident was on the order of a billion dollars. The entire fuel assembly in the reactor was damaged by the heat and the reaction of the hot steam with the zircalloy tubing which contained the fuel pellets. |
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